


Universal Vampire

by NicholasFlamelFan



Series: Universal Vampire [1]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Daggers, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, POV Original Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-01 18:16:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 61,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16770340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NicholasFlamelFan/pseuds/NicholasFlamelFan
Summary: The Doctor found a new companion who travels along with him and Rose. What would change if he took a vampire on board of the Tardis? An Original vampire nevertheless? Will they fall in love or will she fall for someone else instead?





	1. Rose

I was sitting on a banister at the north bank of the Thames right next to the RAF monument, just thinking. It's been over a century now since I've seen my favourite brother Kol. After we had gotten undaggered in 1901, I ran. I didn't want to play happy family with Niklaus, so I left and I've been running ever since.

Suddenly, there was a weird noise and I watched with wide eyes as a blue phone box from the sixties just appeared. Out of nowhere. I mean, I had seen a lot over the past thousand years but a police box appearing out of thin air. I was surprised. Hopefully, that meant that there would be action in my life again. I was getting kind of bored.

"I lost the signal," a man groaned in annoyance "I got so close."

A blond human stumbled after him, staring at her surroundings wide-eyes "We've moved. Does it fly?"

"I doubt it," I spoke up, jumping down to walk over to the two of them "How did it just appear and what was that noise?"

"Disappears here and reappears here," the man waved off "You wouldn't understand. Who are you?"

I raised an eyebrow "Tyra. And you are?"

"The Doctor," he replied, shaking my hand once.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Doctor," I smiled.

The blonde used that moment to cut in again "I'll have to tell his mother." We both looked at her weirdly "Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead and you just went and forgot him again. You were right, you are alien."

"Alien?" I frowned, looking the man up and down. The only weird thing that I noticed about him was the fact that he seemed to have two heartbeats "I can't see it."

He waved me off, staring down the blonde girl "Look if I did forget some kid called Mickey."

"Yeah, he's not a kid." What the hell was going on here? Seriously? I know that I asked for something interesting to happen but I hated being in the dark. Was that Doctor really an alien? Was there even such as thing as aliens? Okay, why wouldn't there be? I mean, there are vampires, werewolves and witches. Why shouldn't there be aliens, right?

"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, alright?" the Doctor shouted.

The blonde rolled her eyes "Alright," she yelled back.

"Are you done yelling now?" I snorted in amusement.

"If you're an alien, how come you sound like you're from the North?" the blonde questioned, changing the subject.

The apparent alien shrugged "Lots of planets have a north."

"What's a police public call box?"

I took that question "It's a phone box from the 50s and 60s."

"It's a disguise," the Doctor added, throwing me a curious look. He was probably wondering why I was still around… Why I hadn't run off yet.

"Okay," the girl shrugged "And this, this living plastic. What's it got against us?"

The Doctor shook his head "Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the was, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!"

"Any way of stopping it?" the blonde questioned.

"Anti-plastic," the Doctor grinned holding up a tube of blue liquid.

The blonde gaped "Anti-plastic."

"Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?" the alien frowned and turned to me "What are you still doing here?"

I shrugged "I'm interested. This is way more interesting than wallowing in my thoughts."

"Hold on. Hide what?"

"The transmitter," the Doctor pointed out "The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

The blonde tilted her head "What's it look like?"

"Like a transmitter." Was the unhelpful reply she got "Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London. A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing." The Doctor explained that all, turning his back to the… London Eye "Must be completely invisible."

I smirked "Yeah, completely," I agreed sarcastically "Doctor, think. We're in London. What's huge and circular in London?"

"What?" he frowned.

"Oh God," I groaned "Just turn around, would you?"

He did as I said and whirled around to us again "What?" He turned again when he saw that the other girl apparently caught on "What is it?" Wow. He was a bit dense "Oh," he murmured, finally catching on "Fantastic." The Doctor grabbed our hands and pulled us with him over to the Westminster Bridge "Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables…"

"The breast implants," the other girl joked.

I stared at her incredulously "Really? That was bad and kind of disturbing."

The Doctor looked like he agreed with me before he shook his head "Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

The blonde leaned over the edge of the bridge "What about down there?" She pointed to a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps.

"Looks good to me," the alien shrugged and ran down there with us hot on his heels. I had no idea why the blonde was following the man but from what I could see it was… fun. We climbed down a short ladder into a brick-built area with lots of chains. From there we walked through a door and down a flight of steps into a large chamber. I wrinkled my nose at the stench of plastic, fear and something else I couldn't really place "The Nestene Consciousness. That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature."

"Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go," the blonde murmured, sounding vaguely freaked out. My lips twitched at the beginnings of a sneer. For some reason, that girl was really pissing me off. Maybe that was why I rarely got close to humans around my physical age. They were too naive.

The Doctor stared at her "I'm not here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance." He jogged down to a catwalk overlooking the seething vat "I seek an audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation." The stuff inside the vat flexed, looking like Kol tried to make some pudding. Heh, that was one of the best memories I could remember. Once just before we were daggered again in the 1800s, he tried to cook something and almost blew up our house while he was at it "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?"

The blonde gasped next to me and ran over to where the scent of fear came from "Oh, God! Mickey, it's me. It's okay," she soothed "It's alright."

"That thing down there," the boy gasped "The liquid. Rose, it can talk!" Ah, so that was her name. Rose… I didn't like it. It was so common. I joined the two humans on the platform, my eyes never leaving the Doctor and the stuff in the vat.

"You're stinking," Rose laughed unconcerned "Doctor, they kept him alive."

The Doctor glanced over his shoulder "Yeah, that was always a possibility. Keep him alive to maintain the copy."

"You knew that and you never said?" Rose demanded.

"Can we keep the domestics outside?" the alien groaned, continuing down the stairs "Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect that you shunt off?" I snorted at his cheek while simultaneously trying to remember what he was saying to that thing. A sort of face formed in the vat of plastic and there was a groaning noise "Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking. This planet is just starting. Thee stupid little people have only learned to walk but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go." I blinked down at him, not quite sure what to make of that speech. He's defending this planet while, at the same time, insulting all of humanity.

"Doctor!" Rose called out in alarm as two shop dummies grabbed the alien from behind.

"That was just insurance," he protested as one of them took the vial of anti-plastic from him "I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not. What do you mean?" A door slid back to reveal the blue box from earlier. That must be of some significance for him and that thing down there, right? Otherwise, I wouldn't have been here "No. Oh, no. Honestly no. Yes, that's my ship." The Doctor paused for a moment "That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world. I couldn't save any of them."

"What's it doing?" Rose shouted as I ran down to join the man at human speed. There was no way I was giving away what I was yet. Even if this wasn't only a one-time meeting.

"It's the Tardis," the Doctor called back "The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion. Get out, Rose. Tyra… Just leg it now."

I tilted my head as the vat kept roaring. Over the noise it was making, I could hear the teenager calling her mother of all people… What to do? The dummies were in front of me, holding the Doctor. I just had to find the right spot to push one of them without harming the Doctor in turn. Oh, fuck it. I jumped forward and just kicked it into the vat, freeing its hands from the alien at the same time. At the same time as it fell down, the anti-plastic tipped onto the Nestene Consciousness.

"Thanks," he murmured, pulling me over to the two humans and the box "Now we should probably leave." The Doctor pushed Rose and Mickey into the Tardis, I believe he called it earlier, and closed the door behind us. The same noise I heard earlier sounded up again and the interior started shaking. Wait, awesome! The inside is bigger than the outside. I'm sure that not even Elijah knew about this and he was the one who seemed to know almost everything. It all stopped as soon as it began and the boy stumbled out of the door. I followed him and Rose outside, ignoring them in favour of studying the man in the doorway of the Tardis.

"Nestene Consciousness?" He clicked his fingers "Easy."

I raised an eyebrow "In what world was that easy? You were trapped."

"You're right," he nodded "Thank you. Right then, I'll be off, unless, er, I don't know, you could come with me. Both of you. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge."

Universe? Well, it was better than to always be on the run from Niklaus… "Is it always like this? And I mean the running and barely getting out thing."

"Yeah," he shrugged.

"Yeah, I can't," Rose mumbled, looking down at her boyfriend "I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so…"

The Doctor nodded in disappointment "Okay. What about you then?"

"You met me an hour ago and you want me to come with you?"

"You kept your head in a situation," he pointed out "That's good enough for me at the moment. It warrants at least one trip."

I took a deep breath and smiled slightly "Alright then. I'm in."

The Doctor held out his hand for me to take and pulled me into the Tardis, pulling some levers "You didn't say it…"

"Say what?" I frowned.

"You know, it's bigger on the inside…" he gestured.

I tilted my head "I saw this box appear out of thin air, I'm really not surprised."

The Doctor froze "I forgot something. Hold on." He worked on the console and ran to the doors "By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"

There was a moment of silence before Rose ran past the Doctor and into the Tardis.


	2. The End of the World

"Right then, Rose Tyler, Tyra... What's your last name?" the Doctor frowned.

I glanced over my shoulder, having just studied the center console of this unusual ship "Mikaelson."

He nodded "Right then, Rose Tyler, Tyra Mikaelson, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backward or forwards in time. It's your choice. What's it going to be?"

"Forwards," I blurted out immediately. If I only had one trip I definitely didn't want to go anywhere I had already been. Also, I wasn't sure where my brothers had been over the years and running into them when I was supposed to be daggered in a box.

The Doctor looked at Rose "And you?"

"Forwards is fine with me," Rose murmured excitedly.

"Alright, how far?"

Rose shrugged "One hundred years?"

I frowned "A century? That's a bit boring... How far can you go?"

"Far as you like," the Doctor offered.

"I'm for anything over a thousand years into the future. Preferably more." I wanted to see something that I might not see if I live my life the way I already did. Depending on how long I'll continue to survive but compared to Nik, Elijah and Rebekah, Kol and I didn't make too many enemies and when we did, we killed them pretty soon after. At least it was better than to leave them alive to get stronger...

The Doctor was silent for a moment "Right, I know exactly where to take you. Hold on!" The Tardis zoomed through time and space, shaking quite badly.

"Where are we?" Rose bounced excitedly "What's out there?" The only answer she got was a gesture to the door. She grinned at the man and sprinted outside. We followed her and I looked around the large room attentively. The Doctor messed with something and a shutter opened, revealing an orbital view of the Earth.

The Doctor walked over to where we were standing "You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive. This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty-six. Five billion years in your future and this is the day," he paused to look at his watch "Hold on." The sun flared, turning an angry red "This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the Earth."

I smiled down at the planet we had just come from. Were we still around at this time or had someone found something to kill us? "Are those satellites?"

"Good eye," the Doctor complimented "Yes. The keep the Earth classic. The way it has been billions of years ago in your time."

' _Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty-nine. Followed by drinks in the Manchester Suite._ '

We were walking along a corridor and Rose blinked up at the computer's voice "When it says guests, does it mean people?"

"Depends what you mean by people," the Doctor teased.

"I mean people, what do you mean?" the blonde gestured.

The Doctor shrugged "Aliens. You're taking this surprisingly well." The last part was said to be with a surprised tone of voice.

I smirked at him a suspicious look and shrugged "I travelled a lot. You wouldn't believe what I've seen... or maybe you would."

"You can't have seen that much," Rose pointed out "You're younger than I am. What? Fourteen? Fifteen?"

"Sixteen, technically," I shot back. I really started disliking that girl. She thought way too highly of herself and I couldn't wait to change that. The only question was if I could try and compel her subtly or if the Doctor would notice.

Rose raised an eyebrow "What about your parents?" she nagged.

"What about yours?" I shot back in annoyance "Listen, it's none of your business but my parents are dead. They weren't the nicest people either."

The Doctor rested a hand on my shoulder "You don't have to tell us. It's alright." He shot a look at Rose, warning her to drop the subject.

The blonde huffed "What are they doing on board this spaceship? What's it all for?"

"It's not really a spaceship," the Doctor explained "More like an observation deck. The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn."

"What for?" Rose questioned.

He shrugged "Fun." The next door slid open, revealing a huge area with a few display cases and a view of space to the front and above "Mind you, when I say the great and the good…"

"You mean, the rich," I finished "I know. So, what you said earlier about the satellites… They keep the Earth like this? Why?"

The Doctor looked down at me "Well, the planet is property of the National Trust. They've been keeping it preserved. The gravity satellites are holding back the sun. But now the money's run, nature takes over."

"How long has it got?" Rose questioned.

"About half an hour and then the planet gets roasted," the man grinned excitedly.

I raised an amused eyebrow "You sound way too happy about a planet burning."

"Is that why we're here?" Rose questioned "I mean, is that what you do? Jump in at the last minute and save the Earth?"

The Doctor shook his head "I'm not saving it," he stated seriously "Time's up."

"But what about all the people?" the blonde exclaimed worriedly.

"It's empty," the man shrugged, not worried at all "They're all gone. No one left."

Rose sighed, looking at the planet "Just me, then."

I stared at her with a raised eyebrow "Are you kidding? I'm guessing that there are Humans all over the universe."

A blue-skinned person with golden slit eyes strode towards us, a pissed off expression on his face "Who the hell are you?"

"Oh, that's nice," the Doctor deadpanned "Thanks."

"But how did you get in?" the alien-looking alien frowned "This is a maximum hospitality zone. The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now."

The Doctor pulled out some kind of wallet "That's me. I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation. Look. There, you see? It's fine, you see? The Doctor plus two. I'm the Doctor, this is Rose Tyler and Tyra Mikaelson. They're my plus two. Is that alright?" He put away the piece of blank paper he had been showing the steward.

"Well, obviously," the blue-skinned alien replied, flustered "Apologies, etcetera. If you're on board, we'd better start. Enjoy." He walked off towards a lectern.

The Doctor glanced at us, opening the wallet "The paper's slightly psychic. It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time."

I frowned in confusion "It's blank…"

"Fascinating," the man murmured "It means that you're smarter than the paper."

"He's blue," Rose blinked, staring after the guy.

The Doctor nodded silently.

" _We have in attendance the Doctor, Rose Tyler and Tyra Mikaelson. Thank you. All staff to their positions,_ " the steward called out and a lot of small blue people appeared. I was kind of wondering why I wasn't more surprised but I guess living for over a thousand years kind of takes the mystery out of things. Especially with siblings like Kol and Nik " _Hurry now, thank you. Quick as we can. Come along, come along. And now, might I introduce the next honoured guest? Representing the Forest of Cheam, we have trees, namely Jabe, Lute and Coffa._ " A bark-skinned woman entered with two larger male escorts " _There will be an exchange of gifts representing peace. If you could keep the room circulating, thank you. Next, from the solicitors Jolco and Jolca, we have the Moxx of Balhoon._ " Another blue alien, this time mostly head and body entered, sitting on what could be a futuristic wheelchair " _And next, from Financial Family Seven, we have the Adherents of the Repeated Meme._ " A group of black-robed figures entered " _The inventors of Hypo-slip Travel Systems, the brothers Hop Pyleen. Thank you._ " Some furry clad reptilians.

The announcements continued but my attention turned to the trees who were coming towards us with their gifts in hand "The Gift of Peace. I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather," Jabe smiled, giving the Doctor a rooted twig in a small pot.

"Thank you. Yes, gifts," the man murmured, patting down his jacket.

"Didn't it hurt him? To cut pieces off?" I questioned, looking at the trees curiously.

Jabe chuckled lightly "Do not worry. He didn't feel anything at all."

"Er," the Doctor coughed "I give you… air from my lungs." He breathed gently on Jabe, causing her to close her eyes.

"How intimate," she remarked.

The Doctor waggled his eyebrows "There's more where that came from."

"I bet there is." I groaned, looking away from them in disgust. Seriously? Did he really have to flirt with a tree of all things? Nothing against his tastes… Jabe was pretty in a way but now?

I glanced at Rose who was starting to get a bit overwhelmed by everything and then returned my attention to the door when the steward started talking again " _From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe._ " A large glass case barely made it through the doorway. It contained a giant humanoid head with straggly hair and squinting eyes.

"The Moxx of Balhoon," the Doctor greeted exuberantly, smiling at the fat blue thing in front of us.

"My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily saliva." He spat into Rose's eye, making the Doctor and me hold back the laughter.

"Thank you very much," the tall man next to me grinned. As soon as the Moxx was gone, the black-robed group came over to us "Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme. I bring you air from my lungs." He breathed on them heavily.

A large metal hand reached out, holding a silver ball "A gift of peace in all good faith." The Doctor grabbed it and handed it to me. I inspected it curiously. From the appearance, it was only a silver ball but it was pretty light, meaning that it was hallowed and not massive.

" _And last but not least, our very special guest. Ladies and gentlemen and trees and multiforms, consider the Earth below,_ " the steward called out " _In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O'Brien Dot Delta Seventeen._ "

A face in a piece of thin skin stretched in a rectangular frame was wheeled in by two men hidden in top-to-toe hospital whites "Oh, now, don't stare. I know, I know it's shocking, isn't it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don't look a day over two thousand. Moisturise me. Moisturise me." One of her attendants used a pump spray on the skin "Truly, I am the last Human. My father was a Texan, my mother was from the Arctic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honour them and say goodbye. Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From the Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband?" I was staring at the skin in disgust. What the hell was that thing and what was it calling itself the last Human? There was nothing Human about that… I followed Rose in walking around the back of Cassandra to see how thin she really was when I stiffened. Her blood smelt… good. Too good. I whirled around to face the doors, trying to hide the black veins that were creeping under my eyes. My fangs slid out of my gums and I pressed my eyes close. Control… I had more control than that. Rose pushed me to the side, rushing out of the room. I immediately followed, seeing it as my chance to get away from the last Human and the temptation of her blood. How could someone so weird smell do good? So sweet?

I walked back to the Gallery we had arrived in earlier, sitting down at the window. I was glad that I was here, that I took the chance to finally do something I want. Over the past century, after I ran from Nik, my only thoughts were about trying not to run into any of my brothers and to get Kol back. My older brother has been a constant source of comfort for me after my twin brother was killed by the wolves. Henrik was the only reason our mother turned us into vampires and I couldn't say that I was happy. I wasn't as suicidal as Finn or anything but I wasn't completely content either. Being with Kol, traveling with him always made me feel alive.

' _Earth Death in twenty-five minutes.'_

"Oh, thanks," I heard Rose sigh from the entrance of the room. She put down the ball I had left by the door and picked up the plant pot "Hello. My name's Rose. That's a sort of plant. We might be related… I'm talking to a twig…"

"Rose?" the Doctor's voice sounded from the hallway "Tyra? You in there?" He entered "Aye, aye. What do you think, then?"

"Great," Rose smiled tensely "Yeah, fine. Once you get past the slightly psychic paper. They're just so alien. You look at 'em and they're alien."

The Doctor chuckled "Good thing I didn't take you to the Deep South."

"Where are you from?" the Human demanded.

"All over the place," the man dismissed.

Rose looked at him "They all speak English."

"Nope," he shrugged "You just hear English. It's a gift of the Tardis. The telepathic field gets inside your brain and translates."

"It's inside my brain?" the girl questioned hysterically.

The Doctor realized he messed up "Well, in a good way."

"Your machine gets inside my head. It gets inside and it changes my mind and you didn't even ask?" Rose rambled.

"I didn't think about it like that," he scratched his head uncomfortably, glancing over at me. I shrugged and turned to look back out at the Earth, drowning out the rest of the conversation. I had no real desire to hear Rose blaming the Doctor for things that were her own fault. She didn't have to leave with a virtual stranger.

"Tell me who you are," Rose shouted loudly, jumping to her feet.

The Doctor glared at the blonde "This is who I am, right here, right now, alright? All that counts is here and now and this is me."

"Yeah," Rose continued "And I'm here too because you brought me here, so just tell me."

The Doctor stormed towards the window where I was still sitting, staring out into space angrily. He sighed and turned to me "Are you alright? You seemed fine earlier."

I shrugged "Sorry. Just tried to wrap my head around the last Human. It's a bit weird."

"Heh, yeah," he grinned "She is a bit much. You're really okay?"

"Sure. You don't have to tell us, by the way," I pointed out "It's none of our business where you're from and we made the choice to come willingly."

' _Earth Death in twenty minutes. Earth Death in twenty minutes.'_

"Alright," Rose sighed, coming closer "As my mate Shareen says, don't argue with the designated driver." She took out her phone, looking for a signal "Can't exactly call for a taxi. There's no signal. We're out of range. Just a bit."

The Doctor sighed "Tell you what." He grabbed the phone and took it apart "With a little bit of jiggery-pokery."

"Is that a technical term?" Rose grinned "Jiggery-pokery?"

"Yeah, I came first in jiggery-pokery," the Doctor shot back "What about you two?"

Rose shook her head "No, I failed hullabaloo."

"And you two are just plain weird. Coming from me that really means something," I mumbled, handing the Doctor my phone when he asked for it.

"Oh, there you go," the man exclaimed, handing Rose her phone and giving me mine back "Go on, try it."

I glanced down at the screen and raised an eyebrow when all the messages from a witch friend of mine trickled in. Each one got more panicked, telling me to call her.

" _Oh, thank God,_ " Sienna sighed, once she picked up the phone.

I frowned "What's up?"

" _Your brother is in London. You have to get out of there._ "

"Relax," I soothed "I'm not in London right now. Where did you track him to?"

" _To your hotel,"_ she mumbled " _You can't go back there, Ty._ "

"Which of my brothers is it?" I questioned, the trepidation in my voice catching the Doctor's attention.

The witch on the other end of the line hummed " _Klaus. He's the one who always actively seeks you out. Elijah just happens to be in the area you're in occasionally._ "

"Shit," I cursed "And I can't even go and get my stuff… Can you –?"

" _Already done. Once I knew he was there, I grabbed everything. Just come around whenever. Where are you anyway?"_

I looked out at the Earth "I left the country. Not sure when I'll be back yet… Just call me when there's news, alright?"

" _Sure thing. Take care of yourself, okay? I don't want to find out that you're in a coffin again._ "

"I don't plan on doing that anytime soon. Bye." I hung up the phone and sighed, dropping my head into my hands. Rose was still on the phone with her mother, trying not to give away too much.

"Who was that?" the Doctor questioned, sitting down next to me "It sounded intense."

I shrugged "Just a friend of mine."

"Are you in trouble?" he frowned, grabbing my hand gently.

"No," I murmured "Not really."

He tilted his head "That's not too convincing."

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it," I brushed him off, standing up.

Rose turned towards us "That was five billion years ago. So, she's dead now. Five billion years later, my mum's dead."

"Bundle of laughs, you are," the Doctor rolled his eyes. Suddenly, the space station started shaking "That's not supposed to happen." He threw us one of his grins and took off back to the observation gallery where the others were.

Outside of the doors, I could hear the Moxx talking to someone "Indubitably, this is the Bad Wolf scenario. I find the inherent laxity of the on-going multiverse."

"That wasn't a gravity pocket," the Doctor remarked "I know gravity pockets and they don't feel like that. What do you think, Jabe? Listen to the engines. They've pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?" Now that he mentioned it, the sound of the engines did change when the station shook.

"It's the sound of metal," Jabe shrugged lightly "It doesn't make any sense to me."

The Doctor spun around "Where's the engine room?"

The tree looked overwhelmed with all the questions "I don't know but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suite… I could show you, your friend and your wife?" The last thing was accompanied by a gesture to Rose. I sighed in relief when I was labeled as friend. That could get awkward really quickly.

"She's not my wife," the Doctor denied.

"Partner?"

"No."

Jabe raised an eyebrow "Concubine?"

"Nope…"

"Prostitute?"

"Whatever I am, it must be invisible," Rose snarked "Do you mind? Tell you what, you two go and pollinate. I'm going to catch up with family. Quick word with Michael Jackson." She left us and walked over to where the tempting scent was coming from. I would stay as far away from that as I could. Otherwise, I couldn't guarantee anything.

"Don't start a fight," the Doctor called after her and offered Jabe his arm "Coming? Tyra?"

"No, thanks. I think I'll stay here," I smiled "Socializing and all that."

He leaned towards me "Try not to insult anyone."

' _Earth Death in fifteen minutes. Earth Death in fifteen minutes.'_

I leaned against one of the walls not too far away from the Face of Boe but far enough from Cassandra that I didn't feel like ripping her apart for her blood. I swear, nothing has smelt this good to me. Ever. Not even when I was a newly turned vampire. Whatever that woman did to her blood, it wasn't natural.

"What happened to everyone else?" Rose questioned Cassandra "The Human race, where did it go?"

The skin glanced at her out of the corner of her eye "They say mankind has touched every star in the sky."

"So, you're not the last Human," the blonde remarked.

"I am the last pure Human," she replied haughtily "The others mingled. Oh, they call themselves New Humans and Proto-humans and Digi-humans, even 'Humanish' but you know what I call them? Mongrels." I grimaced at her tone. The last Human was a right bitch.

A voice chuckled in my head and I blinked. What the hell? What was that? " _That would be me."_ I turned my head to look around the room. Once my gaze swiped over the Face of Boe, I froze " _Yes, it's me._ "

"What do you want from me?" I blinked, looking at the huge head weirdly.

" _Oh, can't I talk to an old friend?_ " the Face of Boe teased " _Fine, fine."_

I tilted my head "Old friend? I'm sure I would remember a giant head. Sorry."

Another chuckle echoed through my head and I vaguely noticed Rose storming off " _Don't be. It's good to see that you started out this way though."_

"I'm sure that wasn't a compliment," I mumbled.

" _Wouldn't you like to know. Listen, I usually wouldn't do that. Timelines and the like but… you told me to warn you. You can't run forever, Tyra Mikaelson."_

I startled "What? No."

" _You should tell him,"_ the big head told me " _Maybe it will help."_

"I don't think so," I murmured "Excuse me." I walked over to Jabe's companions, starting a conversation with both of them, trying to ignore the Face of Boe's words.

' _Earth Death in five minutes.'_

"The metal machine confirms," Jabe called out as she entered "The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One."

The last Human gasped dramatically "How's that possible? Our private rooms are protected by a code wall. Moisturise me, moisturise me."

"Summon the steward," the Moxx squeaked.

"I'm afraid the steward is dead," Jabe murmured.

"Who killed him?"

Cassandra cleared her throat "This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us. Talk to the Face. Talk to the Face."

"Easy way of finding out," the Doctor spoke up "Someone brought their little pet on board. Let's send him back to master." He put down the spider and it scuttled off towards the piece of skin, scanning her. After it was done, it crawled over to the group of black-clad figures.

"The Adherents of the Repeated Meme," Cassandra exclaimed "J'accuse."

"That's all very well, and really kind of obvious," the Doctor shrugged, smiling at me when I stopped next to him "But if you stop and think about it." He went over to the Adherents. Their leader tried to hit him, so he just pulled out its arm "A Repeated Meme is just an idea. And that's all they are, an idea." He pulled at one of the wires dangling from the arm, and the Adherents all collapsed "Remote controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker. Go on, Jimbo. Go home." The Doctor gave the spider a nudge, and it returned to Cassandra.

"I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed," the skin spat "At arms!" Her attendants raised their spray guns threateningly.

"What are you going to do?" the Doctor questioned, striking a pose "Moisturise me?" I snorted in amusement. This was something Kol would do as well.

"With acid. Oh, you're too late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe. Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax-free, past every code wall. I'm not just a pretty face."

The Doctor frowned "Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it? How stupid is that?"

"I'd hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims," Cassandra explained "The compensation would have been enormous."

"Five billion years and it still comes down to money," the Doctor shook his head in disgust.

"Do you think it's cheap, looking like this?" Cassandra bitched "Flatness costs a fortune. I am the last human, Doctor. Me. Not that freaky little kid of yours."

I raised an eyebrow "I'm assuming you're not talking about me."

"Arrest her, the infidel," the Moxx demanded.

Cassandra rolled her eyes "Oh, shut it, pixie. I've still got my final option."

' _Earth Death in three minutes._ '

"And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? Burn, baby, burn," she grinned evilly.

Jabe hissed "Then you'll burn with us."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the flap of skin mocked "I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spiders activate." There was a series of explosions through the whole Platform "Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me."

' _Safety systems failing._ '

"Bye, bye, darlings. Bye, bye, my darlings." Cassandra and her attendants beamed out.

' _Heat levels rising._ '

The Moxx whirred around on his wheelchair thing "Reset the computer."

"Only the Steward would know how," Jabe pointed out.

The Doctor clapped his hands "No. We can do it by hand. There must be a system restore switch. Jabe, come on. You lot, just chill." He grabbed my hand and pulled me along through the corridors and over to where I assumed he had been with Jabe earlier.

' _Heat rising. Earth Death in two minutes. Earth Death in two minutes._ '

"Doctor, where's Rose?" I questioned, just now noticing that I hadn't seen the blonde since she walked out after her talk with Cassandra.

He looked back at me "She's trapped in the room from before. The gallery."

' _Heat levels critical._ '

"Oh, and guess where the switch is," he mumbled, staring at the other side of the room through the whirling of the sharp fans. The Doctor pulled a breaker lever and the fan slowed a little but it reset as soon as he let go.

When he went to pull it down again, I pushed him towards the fans "Go. I'll hold it down."

"You're going to get hurt," he pointed out in concern.

"Don't worry about me," I shook my head, knowing that I would be fine "Just go. Hurry."

Once the computer started the countdown, he ran past the third fan, dashing for the reset breaker "Raise shields," he shouted.

' _One. Exoglass repair. Exoglass repair._ '

"Well, that was close," I murmured when the Doctor joined me, the fans having slowed down again. On our way back to the observation gallery, I fingered the ring I had on my thumb. It was my daylight ring, the one that my mother had given me. The ones Kol, Finn and I were wearing were a bit different than those of the others. Esther had made two different kinds of rings, one type for Elijah, Bekah and Nik and the other for Kol, Finn and me. Since the three of us were the only three of her children who practiced magic.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor mumbled, surveying the room. The Moxx had burned up and Jabe was pressed into a dark corner, looking a bit singed.

Rose came up behind us "You all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," the Doctor nodded "I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them. Idea number one, teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two, this feed must be hidden nearby." He smashed open the alleged ostrich egg to reveal a small device "Idea number three, if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed."

Cassandra's voice floated through the room "Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces." She was beamed back in then "Oh."

"The last Human."

"So, you passed my little test. Bravo. This makes you eligible to join, er, the Human Club," she mumbled, looking around the room nervously.

The Doctor glared at her "People have died, Cassandra. You murdered them."

"It depends on your definition of people," the flap sneered "And that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter."

"And creak?" I pointed out with a smirk.

"And what?"

"Creak," the Doctor repeated "You're creaking."

Cassandra gasped "What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturise me, moisturise me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!"

"You raised the temperature," the Doctor told her without remorse.

"Have pity!" she called out "Moisturise me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything."

Rose leaned over his shoulder "Help her," the blonde whispered.

"Everything has its time and everything dies," he gave back emotionlessly.

The creaking got louder "I'm too young!" With those last words, the last Human exploded with a loud splat. The scent of blood filled my nose and I once again clamped down on my bloodlust. Maybe I should have eaten something before… I would have to rectify that soon.

' _Shuttles four and six departing. This unit now closing down for maintenance._ '

Soon only Rose, the Doctor and I were left, looking at the asteroids that were once the Earth as they floated past the red giant Sun "The end of the Earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking. It's just…" Rose sighed, staring outside with tears in her eyes.

"Come with me," the alien gestured, leading us back to the Tardis.

It didn't take long before we were back in London, walking down a street in the middle of the day. A baby cried somewhere and a man laughed.

"Big Issue! Big Issue!" a guy at the newspaper stand was shouting.

"You think it'll last forever, people and cars and concrete, but it won't," the Doctor gestured "One day it's all gone. Even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's just rocks and dust before its time."

I put a hand on his shoulder. While I couldn't understand completely what he was going through, my home was gone as well. The time had long since passed and everything changed "What happened?"

"There was a war and we lost," he told us.

Rose frowned "A war with who? What about your people?"

"I'm a Time Lord," the alien explained "I'm the last of the Time Lords. They're all gone. I'm the only survivor. I'm left traveling on my own 'cos there's no one else."

"There's me," the blonde grinned happily.

"And me," I added, looking around. I wasn't sure how much time passed since we left and with the possibility of Nik in town…

The Time Lord looked at us closely "You've seen how dangerous it is. Do you want to go home?"

I shook my head "Nope. Not if you'll have me."

"I don't know. I want," Rose sniffed the air "Oh, can you smell chips?"

The Doctor laughed a little "Yeah. Yeah."

"I want chips," Rose decided.

The Doctor nodded "Me too."

"Right then," Rose bounced "Before you get us back in that box, chips it is, and you can pay."

"No money," the alien shrugged sheepishly.

I stared at him, not really surprised "What sort of date are you?" I handed Rose some money "Here. It's on me. There's something I need to do though. I'll meet you there."

"Are you sure?" the Doctor questioned worriedly.

"Why not?" I shrugged. Rose took the ten-pound note with a thanks and pulled the Doctor along with her to the first Chips shop on the street. I closed my eyes for a moment, breathing deeply. I bumped into a man deliberately, compelling him to come with me. We entered a dark alley and I immediately attacked his throat, drinking his blood "You will leave and forget this ever happened. You were attacked by someone when you walked past this alley and they ran before anything could happen." The man scrambled out of the alley, leaving me alone once again.


	3. Unquiet Dead

I smirked at the Doctor who was flitting around the console, trying to ease the jerky flight somewhat. It wasn't working "Hold that one down," the Time Lord instructed Rose.

"I'm holding this one," the blonde complained.

I rolled my eyes "How about I do that, hm?" I strolled over to the button he was gesturing to gracefully "This one, right?"

"Er, yeah," the Doctor nodded, staring at me.

"It's not going to work," Rose groaned.

The Time Lord huffed "Oi! I promised you a time machine and that's what you're getting. Now, you've seen the future, let's have a look at the past. 1860. How does 1860 sound?"

"What happened in 1860?" Rose frowned.

"Me being carted around in a coffin," I breathed under my breath "With two of my brothers along with me."

The Doctor looked at me "What did you just say?"

"Hm?" I blinked wide-eyed "Oh, I didn't say anything. Sorry…"

"Right," he nodded, still eyeing me a bit "I don't know, Rose. Let's find out. Hold on, here we go!"

The Tardis materialized with a huge jerk that threw all of us to the ground "Blimey!" Rose laughed, dusting herself off.

"You're telling me," the Doctor shot back "Are you two alright?"

"Yeah," Rose nodded "I think so. Did we make it? Where are we?"

I looked over and nodded "I'm alright. Hey, if we're in the 1860s… Is there somewhere I can change? I doubt my outfit would go over well."

"Oh, right," the Time Lord exclaimed "Give the man a medal. Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860. The wardrobe is through there. Fist left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up. Both of you."

Rose looked at me, a lost look in her eyes. She probably forgot the directions he gave us already. Never mind that… Without waiting for the other girl, I jogged in the direction of the wardrobe. I was kind of excited to dress up again. While the corsets had been uncomfortable as hell, the dresses were pretty nice. At least, I think they were. I didn't spend too much time in England or America, much less awake in this century.

Once I arrived, I gasped at the sheer size of it all. There were clothes from all decades and all centuries. I briefly stopped at the rack that held clothes from the 10th century, running my hand over a green dress that reminded me of what I used to wear when I was human. It was a pretty good replica without the leather cuffs.

"Woah," Rose murmured, looking around in amazement.

I shook my head and honed in on the section with dresses from the Victorian age. One that immediately caught my eye was a red and black dress. I pulled it out and nodded in appreciation. There was a bow at the bust and ruffles all over the red skirt. Underneath that, you could see black. Mostly at the bottom of the skirt part and some more detailing at the upper chest part of the dress. I took it into one of the changing rooms and quickly put it on, the motions still in my mind.

After I put it on, I frowned at myself in the mirror. My hair was a mix of dark brown and some strand of lighter colouring. I debated what I could and couldn't do in the time I still had. Rose was almost finished changing as well from the sound of it. Maybe I could curl my hair some more and put it up into a half-up-half-down style.

"Are you almost done?" Rose questioned, outside the curtains of my stall.

I hummed "Yeah. You go ahead. I need a few more minutes." I heard her leaving the room, returning to the console room while I put some finishing touches on my hair. The end product was a nice up-do with some strands framing my face. I nodded once and turned to leave the wardrobe as well, smoothing down the dress I was wearing.

"Considering what?" I heard Rose question once I was outside of the doors.

The Doctor shrugged from his place underneath the console "That you're human." He looked up when I entered and his mouth fell open a bit "Wow… You look…"

I smiled and looked down slightly. There hadn't been many compliments on my looks, my brothers always scaring everyone off before they could even think about speaking to me "Thank you. I see you changed your jumper?"

"Yup," he nodded in satisfaction, offering his arm for me to take.

Before we could take a step though, Rose stepped in front of us "You stay here. You've done this before. This is mine." She walked to the door and slowly exited the Tardis, stepping onto the freshly fallen snow. I followed, taking a deep breath. The air was fresh, fresher than it had been in a while. The only aroma that was in the air was the smell of horses and other natural aromas.

"Ready for this?" the Time Lord asked "Here we go. History." Yes, history… My history. Maybe this was my chance to actually experience some events that I missed because of the dagger in my chest. I felt so bad for Kol though… He had always enjoyed altercations and because of Niklaus, he missed both World Wars… Would miss both World Wars… "Are you okay? You look confused."

I looked up at the Doctor and shrugged sheepishly "Well, I just got confused at my thoughts."

"Ah," he grinned "That can happen." While we were walking down the street past a choir, the Doctor quickly bought a newspaper, looking at the time and date "I got the flight a bit wrong," he murmured in disappointment.

"I don't care," Rose laughed, looking around with wonder in her eyes.

The Doctor sighed "It's not 1860, it's 1869."

The blonde shrugged "I don't care."

"Let me guess," I spoke up, laughter in my eyes "It's not Naples either."

"No," the Time Lord replied grumpily "It's Cardiff."

That stopped Rose in her tracks "Right."

Suddenly there was a scream from the direction of what appeared to be a theatre. The Doctor turned around and grinned "That's more like it." We ran off in the direction, barely catching a blue entity coming from an old woman flying around the auditorium "Fantastic." The body collapsed "Did you see where it came from?"

"Ah," the man on stage exclaimed "The wag reveals himself, does he? I trust you're satisfied, sir!"

An old man and a woman picked up the corpse of the woman, carrying her outside "Oi!" Rose shouted "Leave her alone. Doctor, I'll get them."

"Be careful," the Time Lord called after her "Did it say anything? Can it speak? I'm the Doctor, by the way."

The other man raised an eyebrow "Doctor? You look more like a navvie."

The Doctor frowned down at his shirt "What's wrong with my jumper?" The blue entity flew into a gas light "Gas! It's made of gas." He grabbed my hand, pulling me outside to get the blonde "Rose!"

"You're not escaping me," the man from the stage yelled, chasing after us. Now that I thought about it… He looked a lot like I would imagine Charles Dickens looked like. The author did live around this time, did he not? "What do you know about that hobgoblin, hm? Projection on glass, I suppose. Who put you up to it?"

Outside, the Time Lord shoved me into a nearby carriage, getting in behind me "Yeah, mate. Not now, thanks. Oi! Follow that hearse."

"I can't do that, sir," the driver replied politely.

"Why not?" the Doctor frowned.

Possibly Charles Dickens glared at us flustered "I'll tell you why not. I'll give you a very good reason why not. Because this is my coach."

"Well, get in, then. Move!" The driver cracked the whip and the carriage moved down the street after the one that had Rose in it "Come on, you're losing them."

The driver turned his head back, still keeping the pace "Everything in order, Mister Dickens?" I knew it. Elijah had a portrait of the man and told me that he once met him.

"No," the author shouted "It is not."

"What did he say?" the Doctor inquired, gaping at the man in front of him.

I shrugged "Charles Dickens. Why are you so surprised?"

"The Charles Dickens?"

"Should I remove the gentleman and the lady, sir?" the driver asked.

The Doctor smiled exuberantly "Charles Dickens? You're brilliant, you are. Completely one hundred percent brilliant. I've read them all. Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and what's the other one, the one with the ghosts?"

"A Christmas Carol?" Dickens tilted his head.

"The Signal Man?" I questioned.

The Time Lord snapped his finger "That's it. The Signal Man. Terrifying! The best short story ever written. You're a genius."

"You want me to get rid of them, sir?"

"Er, no," Dickens stuttered "I think they can stay."

"Honestly, Charles," the Doctor rambled on "Can I call you Charles? I'm such a big fan."

Dickens blinked "A what? A big what?"

"Admirer," I cut in "He meant to say that he's a great admirer of your works."

"No, but he said fan," Charles argued "In what way do you resemble a means of keeping oneself cool?"

The Doctor shook his head "No, it means fanatic, devoted to. Admirer, like Tyra said. Mind you, I've got to say, that American bit in Martin Chuzzlewit, what's that about? Was that just padding or what? I mean, it's rubbish, that bit." I hit him on the back of the head. Really? Was that normal for him? The rambling?

"I thought you said you were my fan," Dickens frowned.

"Ah, well, if you can't take criticism. Go on, do the death of Little Nell, it cracks me up. No, sorry, forget about that. Come on, faster!" he shouted the last bit to the driver.

Dickens looked at us closely "Who exactly is in that hearse?"

"My friend," the Time Lord explained quietly "She's only nineteen. It's my fault. She's in my care and now she's in danger."

"Why are we wasting my time talking about dry old books?" Dickens exclaimed, suddenly very much excited for the chase "This is much more important. Driver, be swift. The chase is on."

The driver glanced back at us "Yes, sir!" He cracked the whip, urging the horses to go faster.

"Attaboy, Charlie," the Doctor grinned.

"Nobody calls me Charlie."

The Time Lord shrugged "The ladies do."

He waggled his eyebrows down at me and I scoffed "I don't." We jumped out of the coach as soon as it came to a halt and ran up to the front door of an Undertaker's office. Dickens banged on the door hurriedly.

"I'm sorry, sir. We're closed," a young woman told us quietly.

"Nonsense," Dickens blustered "Since when did an Undertaker keep office hours? The dead don't die on schedule. I demand to see your master."

The girl shook her head "He's not in, sir."

"Don't lie to me, child," the author hissed "Summon him at once."

"I'm awfully sorry, Mister Dickens," the girl pointed out "But the master's indisposed."

A gas lamp flared behind her "Having trouble with your gas?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow.

Dickens gaped at the large flame "What the Shakespeare is going on?" The Time Lord shouldered past the girl towards the flaring gas lamp.

"You're not allowed inside, sir," she reprimanded, trying politely to get him out of the house.

"There's something inside the walls," he murmured "The gas pipes. Something's living inside the gas.

Suddenly, we heard shouting from further into the house "Let me out! Open the door."

"That's her," I pointed out, running after the Doctor.

"Please, please, let me out," Rose shouted panicked "Let me out. Somebody open the door. Open the door."

The Doctor kicked in the door and pulled Rose away from the walking dead "I think this is my dance."

"It's a prank," Charles insisted "It must be. We're under some mesmeric influence."

"Or the dead are walking," I suggested from behind his shoulder "Not that that's uncommon."

Dickens turned to me "It isn't?"

I grinned "Maybe it is. Sorry about that."

"Hi," Rose nodded to Charles "Who's your friend?"

"Charles Dickens," the Doctor replied dismissively.

The blonde blinked "Okay."

"My name's the Doctor," the Time Lord told the walking dead "Who are you, then? What do you want?"

The man swayed and several voices sounded "Failing. Open the rift. We're dying. Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Argh!" The gas left and returned to the gas lamp. The corpses collapsed.

Ten minutes later, we were in the living room with Gwyneth pouring tea for everyone.

"First of all you drug me, then you kidnap me and don't think I didn't feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man," Rose ranted at the Undertaker.

He sneered "I won't be spoken to like this."

Rose continued, ignoring his interruption "Then you stuck me in a room full of zombies. And if that ain't enough, you swan off and leave me to die. So come on, talk."

"It's not my fault," Sneed protested "It's this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted. But I never had much bother until a few months back and then the stiffs, the er, dearly departed started getting restless."

"Tommyrot," Dickens scoffed.

Sneed whirled to the author "You witnessed it. Can't keep the beggars down, sir. They walk and it's the queerest thing but they hand on to scraps."

Gwyneth placed the Doctor's cup on the mantelpiece beside him and handed me another cup "Two sugars, sir, just how you like it."

I smiled in thanks and took a small sip, spitting it right back out once the tang of blood hit my tongue "What the…?"

"Are you okay?" the Time Lord questioned in concern.

"Yeah," I nodded, looking at Gwyneth "Yeah. Sorry, just took me by surprise."

He raised an eyebrow "The tea took you by surprise?" I shrugged and drained the cup quickly and placed it to the side.

"One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Just like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned," Sneed told Dickens.

"Morbid fancy," the author shook his head.

The Doctor sighed "Oh, Charles, you were there."

"I saw nothing but an illusion," he pointed out.

"If you're going to deny it, don't waste my time. Just shut up," the Doctor waved off "What about the gas?"

Sneed shrugged "That's new, sir. Never seen anything like that."

"Means it's getting stronger," the Doctor mused "The rift's getting wider and something's sneaking through."

"What's the rift?" Rose tilted her head.

I raised my hand "Well, a rift usually implies a large crack in the ground or a rock or something. So if we apply the same logic to it, I'd say that the rift is – in this case – a crack in space. Maybe time as well."

"You're good," the Doctor smiled proudly "It's a weak point. A connection between this place and another. That's the cause of ghost stories, most of the time."

"That's how I got the house so cheap," Sneed bragged "Stories go back generations."

Dickens shook his head, storming out of the room loudly. I sighed and followed him… I wanted to know whether he still remembered meeting my older brother or if Elijah didn't actually meet him. I found the author in the hallway, staring at a gas lamp in shock "Are you alright?"

He whirled around "Yes, yes. Was there anything you needed… Tyra, wasn't it?"

"Yes, sir," I nodded "Tyra Mikaelson."

Charles tilted his head "I know that last name. Mikaelson. Any relation to…"

"Elijah," I finished for him "He's my older brother."

"A very intelligent young man," the author praised "How is he these days?"

I shrugged "I don't actually know. I haven't seen my siblings in years."

"Oh," he murmured "I'm sorry."

"It's nothing," I smiled sadly "I chose to run."

While we were talking, Dickens took the lip off of Redpath's coffin and waved his hand in front of the dead man's face. I heard a noise in the doorway and turned to see the Doctor leaning against the doorway, watching "Checking for strings?"

"Wires, perhaps," Dickens mumbled, checking further "There must be some mechanism behind this fraud."

"Oh, come on, Charles," the Doctor sighed "All right. I shouldn't have told you to shut up. I'm sorry. But you've got one of the best minds in the world. You saw those gas creatures."

Charles shook his head in denial "I cannot accept that."

"And what does the human body do when it decomposes?" the Time Lord continued on "It breaks down and produces gas. Perfect home for these gas things. They can slip inside and use it as a vehicle, just like your driver and his coach."

"Stop it," the author demanded "Can it be that I have the world entirely wrong?"

"Not wrong," the Time Lord shook his head "There's just more to learn."

Dickens sighed "I've always railed against the fantasists. Oh, I loved an illusion as much as the next man, revelled in them but that's exactly what they were, illusions. The real world is something else. I dedicated myself to that. Injustices, the great social causes. I hoped that I was a force for good. Now you tell me that the real world is a realm of specters and jack-o'-lanterns. In which case, have I wasted my brief span here, Doctor? Has it all been for nothing?"

I put a comforting hand on the man's arm and smiled lightly while the Doctor left to go check up on the others "Don't worry too much, Mr. Dickens. There are things that people don't know and others they believe to be fairytales."

"You sound like you speak from experience," Charles murmured, looking into my eyes "You're eyes speak of pain."

I averted my gaze "Maybe I am." I shook my head and took a couple of steps back "Let's just get back to the others."

"Might I just say," the old man started "You seem much more… elegant and comfortable in these clothes than your blonde friend."

"Thank you, sir," I murmured, leaving the room with the coffins. Ever since the first time I was daggered and woke up in a coffin, I wasn't the biggest fan of those things. It was hard, being taken out of the life you made for yourself and wake up in a completely new world. If Nik ever undaggers Finn, I would help my brother, no matter where I'm gonna be. I'll help my brother adjust. He didn't do anything wrong back then… He only wanted to leave and since no one else really likes Finn, he got overlooked.

We all gathered around the table, turning towards the Welsh girl "This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in big town. Come, we must all join hands."

"I can't take part in this," Dickens protested.

"Humbug?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow "Come on, open mind."

Charles crossed his arms "This is precisely the sort of cheap mummery I strive to unmask. Seances? Nothing but luminous tambourines and a squeezebox concealed between the knees. This girl knows nothing."

"Now, don't antagonize her. I love a happy medium."

Rose shook her head at the Doctor "I can't believe you just said that."

"Come on," the Doctor gestured to Dickens "We might need you."

I shifted uncomfortably. I really didn't like doing this… Magic has been such a big part of my life and now there was nothing. Witches mostly hated my kind, although Kol and I always had good relations with several covens. Sienna was part of our coven, the one we started in Massachusetts in the 16th century. They passed their history down the generations.

Finally, Dickens sighed, sitting down between Rose and Gwyneth "Good man," the Doctor praised "Now, Gwyneth, reach out."

"Speak to us," the girl chanted "Are you there? Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relieve your burden."

I frowned. Okay, from the witch standpoint, there was no way this was going to work. No real incantations, no magic and no reaching out to the Other Side. Then the whispers started and I got a really bad feeling. This wasn't ghosts. Ghosts were people from the Other Side. People who died a supernatural death…

"Can you hear that?" Rose breathed.

"Nothing can happen," Dickens insisted "This is sheer folly."

The blonde glared at the author "Look at her."

"I see them. I feel them," Gwyneth sighed happily, gas tendrils drifting above our heads.

"What's it saying?" Rose asked the Doctor. How could she always ask this many questions? I mean, I didn't ask nearly as many questions but maybe that was because I'd rather enjoy my surroundings instead of nagging.

The Doctor looked at the gas "They can't get through the rift. Gwyneth, it's not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through."

"I can't," she cried.

"Yes, you can," the Doctor told her, tightening his hand on the girl's "Just believe it. I have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link."

She got a dreamy expression "Yes." Blue outlines of people appeared behind Gwyneth.

"Great God," Sneed gasped "Spirits from the other side."

I scoffed lightly and the Doctor tilted his head at me "From the other side of the universe perhaps," he murmured.

The figures started to speak with the voices of children, Gwyneth with them "Pity us. Pity the Gelth. There is so little time. Help us."

"What do you want us to do?" the Doctor questioned.

"The rift," they chorused "Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge."

The Time Lord frowned "What for?"

"We are so very few," they replied "The last of our kind. We face extinction."

"Why? What happened?"

They floated around a bit "Once we had a physical form like you but then the war came."

"War?" Dickens frowned "What war?"

"The Time War," they sighed "The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged. Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We're trapped in this gaseous state."

The Doctor's expression fell and there was some guilt visible in his eyes "So that's why you need the corpses."

"We want to stand tall," they pleaded "To feel the sunlight, to live again. We need a physical form and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us."

"But we can't," Rose protested.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow "Why not?"

"It's not. I mean, it's not…"

"What she's trying to say is that no one wants to see their dead loved ones walking around, Doctor," I told him "Think about it."

"Open the rift," they insisted "Let the Gelth through. We're dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth." They dove back into the gas lamps and Gwyneth collapsed across the table.

Rose shook the girl's shoulder "Gwyneth?"

"All true," Dickens wondered to himself.

I stared at the Doctor, seeing his determined expression. He wouldn't listen to any of us, he would do his own thing, no matter how wrong it might be "Excuse me," I mumbled, stalking out of the door. I needed to be alone right now. There was something different in seeing this and being aware of the real magic that was possible.

I sat down on the stairs outside, just thinking about my past and everything I left behind. God, I missed my siblings, I missed Henrik so much but there was nothing I could do. I didn't want to go back into a coffin and because of what happened in Russia three decades ago, that is sure to happen. I accidentally slaughtered a few people. And yes, it really was an accident. I didn't mean to but when I came out of my haze, they were all dead and Niklaus had probably already heard of it. Since then I moved from town to city to village. Everywhere I could go and hide for a while. Thankfully, Sienna would always warn me if any of my brothers came too close.

"Are you coming?" the Doctor questioned from behind me.

My head snapped up and I frowned "What's going on?"

"Gwyneth decided that she wanted to do it," he told me, holding out his hand to help me up. I sighed and took it, following him down to the basement "Urgh. Talk about Bleak House."

"The thing is, Doctor," Rose leaned forward "the Gelth don't succeed, cause I know they don't. I know for a fact there weren't corpses walking around in 1869."

The Doctor stopped and turned to the blonde "Time's in flux, changing every second. Your cozy little world can be rewritten like that. Nothing is safe. Remember that. Nothing."

Dickens coughed "Doctor, I think the room is getting colder."

"Here they come," I sighed, preparing for this to go to Hell.

A Gelth came out of a gas lamp by the door and stood under a stone archway "You've come to help. Praise the Doctor. Praise him."

Rose lurched a bit forward "Promise you won't hurt her."

"Hurry," the entity exclaimed, completely ignoring the blonde "Please, so little time. Pity the Gelth."

"I'll take you somewhere else after the transfer," the Doctor said "Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn't a permanent solution, all right?"

Gwyneth smiled happily, walking towards the archway "My angels, I can help them live."

"Okay, where's the weak point?" the Time Lord questioned.

"Beneath the arch," the Gelth cried in anticipation.

Gwyneth walked to stand under the arch, right inside the Gelth. Rose reached out a hand "You don't have to do this."

"My angels," Gwyneth sighed.

The Gelth held their arms out to the side "Establish the bridge. Reach out to the void. Let us through."

"Yes," the Welsh girl exclaimed "I can see you. I can see you. Come."

"Bridgehead establishing."

"Come to me," Gwyneth called "Come to this world, poor lost souls."

The Gelth radiated smugness "It is begun. The bridge is made." Gwyneth opened her mouth and blue gas came out "She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend." The blue apparition turned flame red and demonic, its voice deepened and hardened "The Gelth will come through in force."

"You said you were few in number," Dickens exclaimed.

The Gelth smirked "A few billion. And all of us in need of corpses." The dead in the room got up.

"Gwyneth," Sneed cried desperately "Stop this. Listen to your master. This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you."

"Mister Sneed, get back," Rose murmured. A corpse grabbed the man and snapped his neck, a Gelth zoomed into his mouth.

"I think it's gone a bit wrong," the Doctor groaned, hiding his face in his hands.

"I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us," Sneed proclaimed.

Dickens shivered "No."

"We need bodies. All of you. Dead. The human race. Dead."

The Doctor looked at Gwyneth pleadingly "Gwyneth, stop them. Send them back now."

The Gelth ignored him "Four more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth." Dead Sneed backed the three of us up against a metal gate opposite of the exit.

"Doctor, I can't," Dickens grimaced, backing off "I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm so…"

We hid behind the gate, slamming it shut while Dickens turned tail and ran. Not that I could blame him "Give yourself to glory. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth."

"I trusted you," the Doctor spat "I pitied you."

"We do not want your pity," they sneered "We want this world and all its flesh."

"Not while I'm alive," the Doctor shouted.

They looked at each other "Then live no more."

"But I can't die," Rose shrieked "Tell me I can't die. I haven't even been born yet. It's impossible for me to die. Isn't it?"

"I'm sorry," the Time Lord whispered, grabbing both of our hands.

Rose shook her hand free though "But it's 1869. How can I die now?"

"Time isn't a straight line," the Doctor explained "It can twist into any shape. You can be born in the twentieth century and die in the nineteenth and it's all my fault. I brought you here."

"It's not your fault," I told him, poking his shoulder "I wanted to come."

The Doctor raised his left hand and our joined ones "What about me? I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five. I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff."

"Cardiff isn't so bad," I snorted "Okay, I've never been to Cardiff… Forget I said anything."

"It's not just dying," Rose whimpered "We'll become one of them. We'll go down fighting, right?"

The Doctor nodded "Yeah."

"Together?" Rose held up her hand again.

"Yeah," the Time Lord grinned, linking her hand with his again, still holding ours tightly "I'm so glad I met you two."

Suddenly, Dickens ran in, shouting "Doctor! Doctor! Turn off the flame, turn up the gas. Now, fill the room, all of it, now!"

"What are you doing?" the Doctor blinked.

The author turned the tap of the nearest gas lamp "Turn it all on. Flood the place."

"Brilliant," the Doctor exclaimed "Gas."

"What, so we choke to death instead?" Rose shrieked.

Dickens looked over at us tentatively "Am I correct, Doctor? These creatures are gaseous."

"Fill the room with gas, it'll draw out of the host," the Time Lord clapped "Suck them into the air like poison from a wound." The corpses left us and stumbled over to Dickens.

The author swallowed heavily "I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately."

"Plenty more," the Doctor murmured, ripping our a gas pipe from the wall, causing the Gelth to leave the corpses at that moment.

"It's working," Dickens smiled in delight.

We ran out of the alcove and over to Gwyneth. The Doctor raised his hands to touch the girl "Gwyneth, send them back. They lied. They're not angels."

"Liars?" the girl asked sadly.

The Doctor closed his eyes "Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back."

Rose started coughing and I also noticed the lack of air in the room "I can't breathe," she gasped.

"Charles, get them out," the Doctor commanded. I immediately ran out but not before throwing Gwyneth a sad look. Now that I had the time to focus on her, I noticed the lack of a heartbeat. She probably died as soon as she stepped into the arch.

I stopped outside the house, waiting for the Doctor to come out. Once he did, he barely got out in time before the house exploded "She didn't make it," Rose remarked sadly.

"I'm sorry," the Doctor mumbled "She closed the rift."

Dickens shook his head "At such a cost. The poor child."

"I did try, Rose," the Time Lord pleaded "But Gwyneth was already dead. She had been for at least five minutes."

"What do you mean?"

I turned to the blonde "She was dead from the minute she stood in that arch."

"But she can't have. She spoke to us," Rose argued "She helped us. She saved us. How could she have done that?"

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor," Charles waxed poetically. God, he was such a sap.

"She saved the world. A servant girl. No one will ever know."

We walked back to the Tardis and smiled at Charles "Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er, shed. Won't be long."

Rose tilted her head "What are you going to do now?"

"I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all, I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital," the author told us happily.

"You've cheered up," the Doctor noticed in surprise.

Dickens nodded "Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them."

"Do you think that's wise?" Rose questioned.

"I shall be subtle at first," he promised "The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth." I leaned back against the side of the Tardis. He would live long enough to write it. It was after all the year before Charles Dickens died with his book still unfinished.

"Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic."

Rose shrugged "Bye, then, and thanks." She shook his hand and then leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

Dickens blushed "Oh, my dear. How modern. Thank you, but, I don't understand. In what way is this goodbye? Where are you going?"

"You'll see. In the shed," the Doctor smirked.

"Upon my soul, Doctor, it's one riddle after another with you," the author shook his head "But after all these revelations, there's one mystery you still haven't explained. Answer me this. Who are you?"

The Doctor smiled "Just a friend passing through."

"But you have such knowledge of future times. I don't wish to impose on you, but I must ask you. My books. Doctor, do they last?" the author questioned.

I was the one who answered this time "Oh, yes."

"For how long?"

The Doctor took a breath "Forever. Right. Shed. Come on, Rose."

"In the box? All three of you?"

The Time Lord blinked "Down boy. See you."

We were about to go in, when Charles' voice stopped me "Tell your brother that it was nice to meet him," the man said, confusing the other two.

"If I see him again," I smiled, walking into the Tardis and through the console room. I had to get out of this dress. It's been ages since I wore them and they were sort of uncomfortable now.


	4. Aliens of London

I was accosted by the Doctor as soon as I got back to the console room "What did Charles mean with your brother?"

"What?" I blinked in surprise. Oh, right! Dickens had told the other two that he met my brother. Great… Just great "Oh, that. He must have confused me for someone else. As far as I know one of my ancestors met Dickens a year or two before we arrived. According to his journal anyway."

The Doctor crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow in disbelieve "And that is the truth?"

I shrugged "I can show you the journal if I ever get it back. One of my brothers has it at the moment and I really don't feel up to meeting him anytime soon."

"You said something like that. I take it your relationship with your brother isn't the best?" the Doctor questioned curiously.

I shook my head "It's not. At least not with two of my brothers." I couldn't stop my voice from betraying the bitterness I felt "It's always about Niklaus. He always has to be the centre of everything. My older brother bowed to his every whim because he felt guilty…" I shook my head roughly "It doesn't matter… Where are we going now?"

The Doctor looked at me for a moment, looking as though he could see beyond the mask I put up. My brothers' behaviours did affect me deeply, of course they did but there was nothing that I could or wanted to do about it. The only thing I wanted was Kol. He had always been my pillar against the world. After Henrik died, I was alone… It hurt so much to lose a part of yourself. The magic Kol, Finn, Henrik and I had when we were still human had bonded my twin brother and me. We could always tell if the other one was in trouble or hurt. When he died… I shut down for the longest time after that. Once we found out from father that the silver daggers would put us to sleep, I practically begged Kol to dagger me. I didn't want to live with the pain and I still don't want to but by now I learned to ignore the fact that half of my soul was missing. Sometimes, I felt like I was losing myself to this darkness that consumed me. It felt good… Those were the only times that I felt completely free. It has been happening more often over the last century. I never felt remorse for killing anyone and there might have been a massacre or two since I ran.

"As soon as Rose is done, I'll take her home for a visit," the Time Lord explained, messing with some wires that were sticking out from the console.

It took five minutes for Rose to join us and for the Tardis to land close to the blonde's home "How long have I been gone?"

"About twelve hours," the Doctor shrugged. I kept back, standing inside the doors of the time machine. If it had only been twelve hours then Nik could still be here.

"Oh, right," Rose nodded "I won't be long. I just want to see my mum."

The Doctor sighed "What're you going to tell her?"

"I don't know. I've been to the year 5 billion and only been gone, what, twelve hours?" The Doctor nodded at the question "No, I'll just tell her I spent the night at Shareen's. See you later. Oh, don't you disappear." Rose turned and ran up the stairs to the flat that she apparently lived in.

I tilted my head as I watched the Doctor walked over to an old poster that was half stuck to a concrete pillar "What is it?" I questioned, seeing him pale. He whirled around to stare at me with wide eyes before he started running after the blonde. I quickly glanced at the poster and blinked. It was a Police Appeal for Assistance. Rose… Oh! In a flash, I was gone and running after the Doctor. Apparently, he got the date wrong… again. I arrived at the flat in time to hear the Time Lord pant out a sheepish 'Sorry.'

I kept to the background as Rose's mother started ranting at her daughter and the Doctor. Is this how a mother was supposed to act? Not that I would know much about that… Esther had always been more interested in learning magic with Ayana. Finn and Kol were the two that took care of me most of the time when we were younger. That might also have been the reason why I was more interested in hunting, magic and sword-fighting than housework. When I started back into reality, I was surprised to see a policeman sitting on one of the chairs in the living room.

"The hours I've sat there," Jackie sobbed "Days and weeks and months, all on my own. I thought you were dead and where were you? Travelling. What the hell does that mean, travelling? That's no sort of answer. You ask her. She won't tell me. That's all she says. Travelling."

"That's what I was doing," Rose defended herself, throwing a desperate look to the Doctor, willing him to say something.

Her mother raised an eyebrow "When your passport's still in the drawer? It's just one lie after another."

Rose closed her eyes "I meant to phone. I really did. I just… I forgot."

"What, for a year?" The question sounded incredulous and I couldn't blame the older woman. She had a right to react the way she did "You forgot for a year? And I am left sitting here. I just don't believe you. Why won't you tell me where you've been?"

The Doctor shifted slightly "Actually, it's my fault," he admitted "I sort of, er, employed Rose and Tyra as my Companions."

"When you say Companion," the policeman spoke up "Is this a sexual relationship?"

"No," the Doctor and Rose denied quickly and firmly. I thought it was better to stay silent. It wasn't the best idea to draw too much attention from the law. After all, my body was still underaged and there was no way I wanted them to contact my 'guardian'.

Jackie cocked her head "Then what is it? Because you, you waltz in here all charm and smiles and the next thing I know, she vanishes off the face of the Earth. How old are you then? Forty? Forty-five? What, did you find her on the Internet? Did you go online and pretend you're a doctor?"

"I am a Doctor," the Time Lord protested.

"Prove it," Jackie snarled "Stitch this, mate!" She hit the Doctor, hard and I couldn't hold back the snort of laughter that wanted to escape at the man's expression "And you. Do your parents know? You don't look older than fourteen."

I huffed quietly when the attention turned to me "First of all, I am sixteen and second, my family couldn't care less about what I'm doing."

The policeman studied me sharply "As far as I am aware there is no one missing with your description… What's your name?"

I shrugged and crossed my arms over my chest mulishly. I learned a long time ago not to trust the police. They would only try to contact my siblings and that's something I could do without. When it became apparent that I wasn't going to say anything, the policeman left. The missing person showed up and there were no signs of her having been kidnapped.

"I can't tell her," Rose exclaimed, coming onto the roof where the Doctor and I were standing in silence "I can't even begin. She's never going to forgive me. And I missed a year. Was it good?"

"Middling," the Doctor shrugged.

The blonde rolled her eyes, ignoring me "You're so useless."

"Well, if it's this much trouble, are you going to stay here now?" the Time Lord mumbled, defeat in his voice. It was masked but not enough.

"I don't know," Rose sighed "I can't do that to her again, though."

The Doctor's lips twitched "Well, she's not coming with us."

I laughed a bit "From what I've seen that would certainly be an experience," I teased, leaning back against the wall.

"She slapped you," Rose added, laughing at the man.

"Nine hundred years of time and space and I've never been slapped by someone's mother," he complained with a small pout.

I startled. Nine hundred years? "When you say… nine hundred years…?"

"That's my age." I blinked at the alien. He was younger than me? I really shouldn't be surprised though… You rarely find people older than yourself once you're older than a thousand years.

"You're nine hundred years old," Rose stated, gaping up at the alien.

The Time Lord nodded "Yeah."

The blonde laughed hysterically "My mum was right. That is one hell of an age gap. Every conversation with you just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things and I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows they exist." I was about to speak up… I mean, seriously? She was the only person? It was obvious that she was ignoring me as best as she could, always leaving me out of everything. Suddenly there was the sound of a deep horn and a spaceship, trailing black smoke passed overhead, heading for the city. It missed Tower Bridge, weaved around St. Paul's, then with nasty back-fire and a splutter, dove for the Thames, taking out Big Ben while it was at it. I blinked at the crash site… That was unexpected… "Oh, that's just not fair," Rose complained.

The Doctor grabbed my hand and pulled me along. We ran as far as we could go but naturally, the army closed the roads "It's blocked off," the Doctor sighed sadly, trying to see over the heads of all the people.

"We're miles from the centre," Rose pointed out "The city must be gridlocked. The whole of London must be closing down."

The Doctor nodded "I know. I can't believe I'm here to see this. This is fantastic."

I cocked my head "Did you know this was going to happen?"

"Nope."

"Do you recognized the ship?" Rose questioned.

The Doctor shook his head, still grinning "Nope."

"Do you know anything about this?" I shot off, crossing my arms again.

"Nope."

I rubbed at my forehead "Great… Just great. So, what are we going to do then?"

"We could always do what everyone else does," Rose shrugged "We could watch it on TV."

A little while later, we were back in the Tyler's living room. The Doctor was close to the TV, watching the news intently while Rose was with her mother and her friends. I had once more taken my place against the wall as far away from all the people as possible.

" _Big Ben destroyed as an UFO crash lands in Central London. Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control widespread panic, looting and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene."_

_Hitchinson stared into the camera. He was standing close to the crash site with the smoking spaceship behind him "The police are urging the public not to panic. There's a helpline number on screen right now if you're worried about friends or family."_

_The channel changed to AMNN "The military are on the lookout for more spaceships. Until then, all flights in North American airspace have been grounded."_

_The Doctor pressed another button on the remote and Hitchinson was back "The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship. No one knows what they're going to find."_

_AMNN again "The President will address the nation live from the White House but the Secretary-General has asked that people watch the skies."_

Jackie walked up to her daughter, handing her a cup of tea and another to one of her friends "I've got no choice," she sighed.

"You've broken your mother's heart," the friend remarked, staring at Rose accusingly.

"I'm not going to make him welcome," Jackie crossed her arms.

Her friend nodded "I cradled her like a child."

"Oi," the Doctor grumbled "I'm trying to listen."

" _His current whereabouts. News is just coming in. We can go to Tom at the Embankment," the reporter murmured._

_The scene cut back to Hitchinson "They've found a body. It's unconfirmed but I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore. A body of some sort has been found inside the wreckage of the spacecraft."_

Jackie took a sip of the wine they had just distributed "Oh, guess who asked me out."

" _Brought to the nearest shore. Unconfirmed reports say that the body is of extra-terrestrial origin. An extraordinary event unfolding here live here in Central London. The body is being transferred to a secure unit mortuary, the whereabouts is yet unknown. The roads of London are being…"_

_The channel changed to a children's program where some guy was currently baking a spacecraft cake._

I blinked over to the Doctor to see him wrestling with a toddler. I grinned at the picture and walked over to scoop the child into my arms, tickling his sides. The remote was back in the Doctor's hand and he changed back to the news.

" _Albion Hospital. We still don't know whether it's alive or dead. Whitehall is denying everything."_ The little boy I was still holding was playing with the necklace around my neck, seemingly enchanted by it. Kol had gifted it to me when we were still human. It was a stone with my name engraved in our mother tongue _"But the body has been brought here, Albion Hospital. The road's closed off. It's the closest to the river. I'm being told that General Asquith is now entering the hospital. The building's been evacuated. The patients have been moved out onto the streets. The police won't confirm the presence of an alien body contained inside those walls."_

_Another reporter was standing in front of Downing Street "Mystery still surrounds there whereabouts of the Prime Minister. He's not been seen since the emergency began. The opposition is criticising his lack of leadership and… Hold on." An official car pulled up and a portly man got out "Oh, that's Joseph Green, MP for Hartley Dale. He's Chairman of the Parliamentary Commission on the monitoring of sugar standards in exported confectionery. With respect, hardly the most important person right now."_

I blinked in amusement "There's a Chairman for sugar standards? That's a bit overkill, isn't it?"

When the Doctor shot up from his chair instead of answering, I set the child down near his mother and followed the alien with Rose hot on our heels.

"And where do you think you're going?" she demanded.

The Time Lord whirled around, staring at us with wide eyes "Nowhere. It's just a bit human in there for me. History just happened and they're talking about where you can buy dodgy top-up cards for half price. I'm off on a wander, that's all."

"Right," the human nodded, clearly not believing a word of what he was saying "There's a spaceship on the Thames and you're just wandering."

The Doctor shrugged "Nothing to do with me. It's not an invasion. That was a genuine crash landing. Angle of descent, colour of smoke, everything. It's perfect."

"Yeah," I murmured, deep in thoughts "Perfect… Don't you think it might be a little… I don't know… Too perfect?"

"Nah," he shook his head "Maybe this is it. First contact. The day mankind officially comes into contact with an alien race. I'm not interfering because you've got to handle this on your own. That's when the human race finally grows up. Just this morning you were all tiny and small and made of clay. Now you can expand. You don't need me. Go and celebrate history. Spend some time with your mum."

Rose shifted "Promise you won't disappear?"

"Tell you what," the Doctor grinned "Tardis keys. It's about time both of you had one. See you two later." He pressed the silver key into my hand, winking at my stunned look.

When he jogged down the stairs, I turned around and walked back into the flat, no matter how much I hated it. I sat down in the armchair the Doctor had been occupying earlier. It didn't take long for the boy from earlier to scamper into my lap again, grabbing a hold of the necklace again "You like that, don't you?" He nodded happily, leaning back into me.

The women in the room had all refilled their glasses and were toasting "To the Martians!"

The boy from the sewers stormed into the flat, looking around until his gaze caught Rose standing up sheepishly "I was going to come and see you," the blonde spoke up.

"Someone's in trouble," I whispered to the child who giggled at the scene. I doubted that he understood completely but he was cute.

The woman from before spoke up, crossing her arms "Someone owes Mickey an apology."

Rose looked down "I'm sorry."

"Not you," the woman waved off.

Jackie looked at her friend indignantly "Well, it's not my fault. Be fair. What was I supposed to think?" It only took a few moments of awkward silence before the three retreated to the kitchen. I kept an ear on their conversation while also paying attention to the toddler who was babbling at me by now.

"You're good with him," his mother pointed out "Do you have siblings?"

I looked at her with a small smile "I do but I'm the youngest in the family…"

"Youngest of how many?" the woman asked curiously, then others also glancing at me.

"I have four older brothers and an older sister," I replied. There was nothing bad about telling them that much. Not like it was a secret anyway.

They blinked in surprise "That's a big family. What about your parents?"

I lifted the boy from my lap when I heard Rose run out of the flat "Excuse me."

"He wouldn't just go," Rose shook her head when I joined them "He promised me."

I rolled my eyes when Mickey started gloating "Oh, he's dumped you, Rose. Sailed off into space. How does it feel, huh? Now you are left behind with the rest of our Earthlings. Get used to it."

"He would have said," she mumbled.

"The Doctor did imply that he would check out the alien," I pointed out "He'll be back soon."

Jackie frowned "What are you three going on about? What's going on? What's this Doctor done now?"

"Ho, ho, ho," Mickey laughed "He's vamoosed."

Rose crossed her arms "He's not, because he gave me this." She held up her key "He's not my boyfriend, Mickey. He's better than that. He's much more important than…" The sound of the Tardis arriving echoed through the air "I said so. Mum! Mum, go inside. Mum, don't stand there, just go inside. Just, Mum, go. Oh, blimey."

"Huh?" Mickey tilted his head as the Tardis appeared completely.

"How did you do that, then?" Jackie demanded with wide eyes. She followed us through the doors.

The Doctor was standing with his back to us, entering something into the computer "Alright, so I lied. I went and had a look. But the whole crash landing's fake. I thought so. It's how Tyra said. Too perfect. I mean, hitting Big Ben. Come on, so I thought let's go and have a look…"

"My mum's here," Rose pointed out, making the Time Lord turn around.

"Oh, that's just what I need," he groaned "Don't you dare make this place domestic." I joined him at the console and tried to read the weird symbols that were circling around there. That must be the Doctor's mother tongue. It would make sense that the Tardis didn't translate it.

Mickey stalked closer to the alien "You ruined my life, Doctor. They thought she was dead. I was a murder suspect because of you."

The Doctor waved his hand "You see what I mean? Domestic." He turned to me "Please tell me that you won't start bringing people in as well."

"I don't plan on doing that anytime soon," I shrugged "But you'll never know."

"I bet you don't even remember my name," Mickey challenged, interrupting us.

The Doctor rolled his eyes "Ricky."

"It's Mickey."

"No, it's Ricky," the Time Lord corrected, annoying the boy in front of him.

Mickey crossed his arms "I think I know my own name."

"You think you know your own name? How stupid are you?"

Jackie who had been frozen to the spot whirled around and ran out of the doors. Rose shouted after her "Mum, don't! Don't go anywhere," she warned us "Don't start a fight." The blonde ran out but came back only moments later "That was a real spaceship."

"Yep," the Doctor nodded.

"So it's all a pack of lies?" she frowned "What is it, then? Are they invading?"

Mickey snorted "Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert."

"Maybe that's the point," I spoke up "Someone or something planned this… But why?"

The Doctor nodded "Good point! So, what are they up to?"

Five minutes later, the Doctor was underneath the console with the young man standing over him "So, what're you doing down there?"

"Ricky," the Time Lord started.

"Mickey," Mickey corrected in annoyance.

The Doctor sighed "Ricky. If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?"

"I suppose not," the boy shrugged.

"Well, shut it, then," the Doctor huffed, putting his screwdriver back into his mouth.

Mickey turned to his girlfriend "Some friend you've got. At least the other one is quiet."

"I have a name," I pointed out without sparing him a glance and flopped down next to the Doctor "So, what are you doing?"

He looked up at me, a mischievous glance in his eyes "I'm patching in the radar. I want to see where the spaceship came from."

"And you couldn't tell Mickey why?"

"Didn't feel like it," the alien grinned before clapping his hands in triumph "Got it! Haha! Looped the radar back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship. Here we go. Hold on. Come on." He looked at the trajectory on the monitor "That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See? The spaceship did a slingshot round the Earth before it landed."

I breathed in sharply "So that means that it came from Earth… But…"

"Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived," the Doctor added "They've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?" He got lost in thoughts, thinking about what the aliens could be doing.

The two humans started channel-hopping on the scanner "How many channels do you get?" Mickey asked.

"All the basic packages," the Doctor shrugged.

The young man perked up "You get sports channels?"

"Yes, I get the football. Hold on," he pointed "I know that lot."

" _It is looking likely that the Government's bringing in alien specialists – those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space," a woman explained, the camera showing a group of people entering Downing Street._

"UNIT," the Doctor said, a fond note playing in his voice "United Nations Intelligence Taskforce. Good people."

Rose frowned "How do you know them?"

Mickey grimaced "Cos he's worked for them. Oh yeah, don't think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor. I read up on you. You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead."

"That's nice," the Time Lord dismissed "Good boy, Ricky."

"If you know then, why don't you go and help?" the blonde tilted her head.

The Doctor waved off "They wouldn't recognize me. I've changed a lot since the old days. Besides, the world's on a knife-edge. There's aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And er, I'd better keep the Tardis out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving."

"Where to?" the boy questioned.

"The roads are clearing," the Time Lord murmured to himself "Let's go and have a look at that spaceship."

We stepped out of the Tardis and into helicopter spotlights. I flinched at both the sound of the sirens and the brightness of the light. Sometimes the vampire senses were more of a curse "Do not move," one of the officers shouted "Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads." Police cars and armoured personnel carriers surrounded us from all sides. Mickey took the chance he saw and ran, hiding further down the street.

"It seems as if they recognize you, Doctor," I poked him in the side, not bothering to actually raise my hands.

The Time Lord grinned widely "Take me to your leader." We were herded to an SUV and shoved in roughly.

Rose looked around in surprise while I was being squished between the Doctor and the door "This is a bit posh. If I knew it was going to be like this, being arrested, I would have done it years ago."

"This isn't being arrested," I told her "Trust me, I'd know."

"Do I want to know?" the Time Lord raised an eyebrow.

I glanced up at him innocently "Probably not."

"We're being escorted, Rose," he said.

The blonde frowned "Where to?"

"Where do you think?" he groaned in exasperation "Downing Street."

"You're kidding," she gaped.

The alien shook his head "I'm not."

"10 Downing Street?" she clarified. I didn't see what was so exciting about it. Not like I hadn't been in there before.

"That's the one."

Rose grinned excitedly "Oh, my God. I'm going to 10 Downing Street. How come?"

"I hate to say it, but Mickey was right," the Doctor admitted "Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times and I've been, er, noticed."

"And now they need you?" Rose finished.

The Time Lord nodded "Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge. And who's the biggest expert of them all?"

"Patrick Moore?" the blonde teased.

She got an eye roll as a response "Apart from him. Hey, who's the Prime Minister now?"

"How should I know? I missed a year," Rose shrugged.

I glanced over my shoulder "And I'm not British."

"You're not?" the blonde blinked "But you have the accent."

"My family is from Norway but my parents moved to the US before I was born," I explained when the car started to slow down.

Outside of the car, the Doctor was posing for the cameras until I hit him on the back of the head lightly, pointing to the person waiting for us in the doorway. Once we were inside, an Indian man cleared his throat "Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene? Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times." He handed one to the Doctor "Here's your ID card. I'm sorry, your Companions don't have clearance."

"I don't go anywhere without them," the Doctor shook his head.

The assistant shrugged apologetically "You're the code nine, not them. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it? They'll have to stay outside."

"They're staying with me."

"Look," the man sighed "Even I don't have the clearance to go in there. I can't let them in and that's a fact."

I put a hand on his arm, getting the Time Lord's attention "It's fine. You go in. Rose and I will be fine."

"Excuse me," an older woman said, coming closer to us hesitatingly "Are you the Doctor?"

"Sure." The Doctor didn't even notice the woman, instead, he studied both Rose and me intently.

The Indian man waved her away "Not now. We're busy. Can't you go home?"

"I just need a word in private," the woman insisted and that's when I noticed her expression. She was in shock and whatever she saw, it was most likely important.

The Doctor sighed "I suppose so. Don't get in any trouble," he warned, leaving to join the other experts.

"You haven't got clearance," the Indian groaned "Now leave it." He turned to Rose and me "I'm going to have to leave you with security."

"It's alright," the woman threw in "I'll look after them. Let me be of some use." She grabbed my arm and pulled me along "Walk with me. Just keep walking. That's right. Don't look around. Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North."

I tilted my head "Are you okay? What happened?"

"What do you mean?" Rose threw in from behind us.

"It's obvious that something happened. What did you see?" I questioned quietly. To my horror, the woman actually started crying. Great!

Harriet lead us to the Cabinet Room and showed us the shell of what appeared to have been a human once. I poke it curiously. There was no blood or innards, only the outer skin… "They turned the body into a suit. A disguise for the thing inside."

"It's alright," Rose soothed absentmindedly "I believe you. It's, it's alien. They must have some serious technology behind this. If we could find it, we could use it." She started searching the room, opening a cupboard at the end of the room. I looked up from studying the suit when I heard a body hit the floor "Oh, my God. Is that the…"

"Harriet," the Indian man from before exclaimed, storming into the room "For God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander… Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister."

The door was shut suddenly and we all whirled around "Oh! Has someone been naughty?" a big woman mocked, evil grin on her face. I would have probably been scared if I hadn't been around Nik and Mikael for so long.

"That's impossible," the assistant breathed "He left this afternoon. The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away."

I raised an eyebrow "Well, obviously not."

The woman stalked closer "And who told you that, hmm? Me." She reached up to her hairline, unzipping a zip that I only just noticed. It was similar to the one on the skin suit.


	5. World War Three

I blinked at the green alien weirdly. How in the world did they fit into the body? Was that why the bodies were this fat? To accommodate the seven-foot alien. She moved quickly, pinning the aide to the wall by his throat. Dammit, Tyra… Move! Help him. I slammed into the green thing at human speed, making her drop the man to the floor "Run," I hissed at Rose "Help them and run." The blonde didn't need to be told twice and together with Harriet and the Indian man ran out of the room. I turned to look at the alien and allowed my eyes and fangs to show "What do you want?"

She just glared down at me, trying to escape from my grip to no avail "Bite me," she spat.

I grimaced "I'd rather not. Don't know where you've been…"

"What are you?" the alien demanded, raising one of her clawed hands to my face.

I flinched away from her and turned on my heel without another word. From outside the hall, I could hear Harriet shouting about Emergency Protocols or something, so I ran out "Emergency Protocols or not. We have to hide."

"Hide," Rose whispered when we came into a sitting room with a large settee and a folding screen by the window to keep out the draughts. The blonde hit behind the cabinet, while Harriet and the man slid behind the screen. I, on the other hand, opened the door to the cupboard and slid in.

As soon as I pulled the door close so only a small slit was left, the alien entered the room "Oh, such fun," she tittered "Little human children, where are you? Sweet little humeykins, come to me. Let me kiss you better. Kiss you with my big, green lips." I could see and hear Rose sneaking from the cabinet to one of the curtains by the window. Just as she was hidden, two more green aliens entered. They were a pretty shade of puke green… Did I really just think that? "My brothers." Brothers? A family then?

"Happy hunting?" one of the males purred.

The female sighed "It's wonderful. The more you prolong it, the more they stink."

"Sweat and fear," the other one nodded in amusement. Well, he wasn't wrong about that. I could smell the same thing but I was used to it by now. Comes with spending so much time around humans. They tend to fear a lot and sweat even more.

"I can smell an old girl," the first male hummed "Stale bird and brittle bones."

The female chuckled "And two ripe youngsters, all hormones and adrenaline. Fresh enough to bend before they snap… Then there's the – other one. Oh, my brothers, you won't believe what I found us." Before she continued though, she pulled back the curtain, causing Rose to scream in fear.

"No!" Harriet shouted, spreading her arms "Take me first! Take me!"

The Doctor burst in with a fire extinguisher, spraying the male with the CO2 "Out," he commanded "With me." I grabbed the Indian man by the arm and dragged him from the room quickly "Who the hell are you?"

"Harriet Jones," the older woman replied "MP for Flydale North."

The Time Lord smiled politely "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Harriet nodded, running out of the door when the Doctor used up the rest of the extinguisher.

The alien looked around the corridor "We need to head to the Cabinet Room."

"The Emergency Protocols are in there. They give instructions for aliens," the older woman pointed out.

The man next to me shook his head, finally coming out of his frozen state "But we'd trap ourselves. We have to get out of here."

"We can't," the Doctor shook his head, leading the way to the Cabinet Room quickly. Without a pause, he grabbed a decanter from a side table and stood in the doorway threateningly "One more move and my sonic device will triplicate the flammability of this alcohol. Woof, we all go up. So back off." The aliens took one step back, into the outer office "Right then. Question time. Who exactly are the Slitheen?"

"They're aliens," Harriet threw in from next to me.

The Time Lord sighed "Yes. I got that, thanks."

"They're a family, I think," I pointed out, studying the green people from over the Doctor's shoulder which wasn't easy, seeing as he was over a head taller than me.

One of the males from before tilted his head "Who are you, if not human?"

"Who's not human?" the old woman next to me inquired.

Rose leaned over "He's not human," she whispered.

"He's not human?" Harriet repeated shrilly.

"Can I have a bit of hush?" the Doctor demanded "So, what's the plan?" I ignored Rose and Harriet and even the man when he spoke up as well, walking over to the side table, the Doctor had grabbed the decanter from. There was another one filled with Scotch from the smell of it. Would anyone notice or care if I grabbed a glass? Not like I could get drunk but whatever the Doctor planned, I doubted that I would get blood anytime soon "I said hush," the Time Lord snapped lightly "Come on. You've got a spaceship hidden in the North Sea. It's transmitting a signal. You've murdered your way to the top of the government. What for? Invasion?"

One of the males grimaced "Why would we invade this God-forsaken rock?"

"Then something brought the Slitheen race here. What is it?" he questioned while I tried to inconspicuously pour myself a glass of Scotch.

The green aliens laughed "Slitheen race?"

"Slitheen is not our species," the leader male guy explained impatiently "Slitheen is our surname. Jocrassa Fel Fotch Pasameer-Day-Slitheen at your service."

The Time Lord glanced at me briefly "So you're really a family."

"A family business," the leader Slitheen nodded.

"Then you're out to make a profit. How can you do that on a God-forsaken rock?"

The male to the right cleared his throat "Ah, excuse me? Your device will do what? Triplicate the flammability?"

The Doctor blinked "Is that what I said?"

"You're making it up," the Slitheen accused.

"Ah, well," the Time Lord shrugged "Nice try! Harriet, have a drink. I think you're going to need it." He held out the alcohol to her.

She barely glanced at him and in true British fashion waved him away "You pass it to the left first."

"Sorry," the Doctor grinned, handing the decanter to the Indian man instead "Fascinating history, Downing Street. Two thousand years ago, this was marshland. 1730, it was occupied by a Mister Chicken. He was a nice man. 1796, this was the Cabinet Room. If the Cabinet's in session and in danger, these are about the four safest walls in the whole of Great Britain. End of lesson." The Doctor lifted a small panel by the door and pressed a button, causing metal shutters to crash down across the windows and doors "Installed in 1991. Three inches of steel lining every single wall. They'll never get in."

"And we'll never get out. Congrats. We're trapped inside a room with aliens aiming to blow up the planet outside." I was about to take a sip from the Scotch when it was grabbed out of my hand "Hey," I pouted "I was drinking that."

The Indian man raised an eyebrow "I'm not letting an underage teenager drink inside Downing Street."

"We're in the middle of an invasion and you're worried about a bit of underage drinking?" I blinked "Get your priorities straight, man… What's your name anyway?"

"Indra," he replied "And my priorities are very straight."

I huffed and crossed my arms with a pout "No one lets me have any fun." After a short pause, I glanced up at the man pleadingly "Please?"

"No."

The Doctor snorted at me when I flopped down in a chair ungracefully graceful "Right, what have we got? Any terminals, anything?"

Rose shook her head, smirking at me in triumph. What was her problem now? Didn't I save her earlier? "No. This place is antique. What I don't get is, when they killed the Prime Minister, why didn't they use him as a disguise?"

"He's too slim," the alien pointed out "They're big old beasts. They need to fit inside big humans."

The blonde frowned "But the Slitheen are about eight feet. How do they fit inside?"

"That's the device around their necks. Compression field. Literally shrinks them down a bit. That's why there's all that gas. It's a big exchange."

"Wish I had a compression field," Rose snorted "I could fit a size smaller."

Harriet breathed in sharply "Excuse me, people are dead. This is not the time for making jokes."

"People die every day," I shrugged "Nothing too unusual there."

"You're very fatalistic, aren't you?" Indra raised an eyebrow.

I craned my neck to look at him "I'm realistic. I might be young but I know that everything ends one day. Whether we want it to or not."

"Depressing people aside," the Doctor spoke up, a thoughtful expression on his face "Harriet Jones. That name rings a bell."

The older woman sighed "Lifelong backbencher I'm afraid and a fat lot of use I'm being now. The Protocols are redundant. They list the people who could help and they're all dead downstairs."

"Hasn't it got, like, defense codes and things? Couldn't we just launch a nuclear bomb at them?" Rose questioned.

"You're a very violent young woman," Indra coughed, choking on the Scotch he drank moments ago. That was my Scotch… I stand by my point. It's unfair.

Rose rolled her eyes "I'm serious. We could."

"Well," Harriet murmured, shuffling through the papers "There's nothing like that in here. Nuclear strikes do need a release code, yes, but it's kept secret by the United Nations."

The Doctor straightened up "Say that again."

"What? About the codes?"

"Anything," he waved off "All of it."

Harriet nodded in confusion "Well, the British Isles can't gain access to atomic weapons without a Special Resolution from the UN."

"But we don't necessarily need atomic weapons," I cut in "A simple missile should be more than enough. We want the Slitheen gone, not the entirety of England."

All of the adults looked at me weirdly and Indra blinked with wide eyes "How do you know that?"

I froze for a millisecond and then shrugged smoothly "Er… school?"

"Right…" Rose drawled "What do the Slitheen want though?"

"Well," the Doctor mused "They're just one family, so it's not an invasion. They don't want Slitheen World. They're out to make money. That means they want to use something. Something here on Earth. Some kind of asset."

"Like what? Gold? Oil? Water?" Harriet guessed.

The Doctor glanced at her in surprise "You're very good at this."

"Thank you," the older woman preened.

"Harriet Jones. Why do I know that name?"

Before I could comment on his words, the beeping of a phone echoed through the room "Oh, that's me," Rose apologized, pulling out her mobile.

Indra gaped "But we're sealed off. How did you get a signal?"

"He zapped it." Rose gestured to the Doctor "Superphone."

"Then we can phone for help," Harriet pointed out "You must have contacts."

The Doctor grimaced "Dead downstairs, yeah."

"It's Mickey," the blonde human announced.

"Oh, tell your stupid boyfriend we're busy," the Time Lord groaned.

Rose flipped the phone to face us "Yeah, he's not so stupid after all." On the screen was a photo of a Slitheen being electrocuted. When did that happen? Was it after I ran out of the room? Has to be.

Five minutes later, the blonde was on the phone with Mickey, while I was pacing up and down the room in boredom. If there were two things that didn't do well together it was me and boredom. While Kol was worse, you shouldn't count me out. I might have set a church on fire once. Complete accident of course.

"What's your name?" Indra questioned, leaning against the end of the table close to me "I don't think anyone said before."

"Tyra," I replied "I know. Odd name but it grows on you."

The man smiled lightly "What does it mean?"

I shrugged "I'm named after Tyr. The Norse God of battles. All of my siblings have Norse names."

"You have siblings?" he sounded calmer than he did before. Maybe the small talk was helping him relax a little. Being aware of aliens and getting almost killed by one were two different things after all.

"Yeah," I nodded "A few. Mostly older brothers though."

Indra grimaced "That can't be easy. Do you get along?"

"For the most part," I murmured "I'm not on speaking terms with two of them and the others are busy, so I'm on my own. Well, I have the Doctor now. He's kinda cool."

"What about your parents?" the man inquired with a small frown "Don't they care?"

I ruffled my hair "Why all those questions?"

"I – I just." He broke off, taking a couple of deep breaths "I need to get my mind off of this whole mess somehow and that's the distraction I chose. Deal with it."

I snorted in amusement "Will you let me drink? Then I'll answer… five of your questions."

"Seven," he argued.

"Deal," I smirked, holding out my hand for him to shake. As soon as he did, I practically ran to the table with the decanter and poured myself another glass of Scotch "So. First question?"

"Your parents?" he prompted.

I closed my eyes for a moment and took a sip of alcohol "My father was an abusive bastard and my mother just stood by and watched. They're both dead now."

Indra winced "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"It's fine," I smiled sadly "It's in the past. Now, I believe you have nine questions left?" The bigger part of my attention was on the man next to me but I was also listening to what was going on behind me, ready to join the conversation if I felt like it.

"Right," he nodded "You said you have siblings. What are their names?"

The corner of my lip twitched "From oldest to youngest. Finn, Elijah, Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah and then me."

"Follow up," he piped up "How old are they?"

I scratched the back of my head "Not part of the deal. Fine, just this once… Finn is 27, Elijah is 24, Nik is 21, Kol is 19 and Rebekah is 18."

"Question two. How old are you?"

"I'm sixteen," I answered.

Indra paused for a moment, thinking about the question he could ask next. I really hoped that he wouldn't ask too many questions about my life or my family. I didn't want to talk about them… I was only doing this to make him feel more comfortable. The fact that the others weren't paying attention was a bonus "Who is your favourite sibling?"

"Kol," I answered without hesitation.

"Why?"

I shrugged "He always took care of me and whenever we moved around, he would always take me to see the area."

"He sounds nice," Indra murmured, smiling down at me.

I couldn't help but grin a bit "To me he is."

"You mentioned moving around. How much have you already seen from the world?" the man questioned.

"Er…" I blinked a few times, trying to think about the answer "My family is from Norway originally, so I've been there before. We lived in America for a while and when Kol was old enough we moved to Africa for a bit. I just recently came back here."

"That's awesome," he sighed "I can only dream about traveling that much. My job here keeps me pretty busy."

I nodded "I can believe that. So that was question number… five. Another two to go." I glanced behind me when a weird sound came from the speaker "What's that supposed to be?"

The Doctor looked at me and shrugged "The Slitheen have got a spaceship in the North Sea and it's transmitting that signal. Now hush, let me work out what it's saying."

"Whatever that means," Indra mumbled under his breath, causing me to snort "Careful. Deep question. What quote do you try to live by?"

I hummed "That's a bit difficult… It usually changes but at the moment there's this one quote that really fits… **A new day is going to come whether we like it or not. The question is what we're going to do with it.** "

"I didn't expect to hear something like that from a teenager," the older man admitted "Okay. Last question. What subject makes you geek out?"

I laughed "That would be Mythology. I'm very into occult. You know, vampires, werewolves, witches. The Gods of different religions. That sort of stuff. I could probably talk about Norse Mythology for hours." It was then that a scream came through the speaker and both Indra and I turned back to see the other three staring at the phone with something akin to fear in their eyes.

"There's got to be some way of stopping them!" Harriet exclaimed "You're supposed to be the expert. Do something."

The Doctor rolled his eyes "I'm trying."

" _I'll take it on, Jackie,_ " Mickey's voice filtered through " _You just tun. Don't look back. Just run._ " A door splintered in the background.

Rose grasped the Doctor's arm tightly "That's my mother."

"Right," the alien nodded "If we're going to find their weakness, we need to find out where they're from. Which planet. So, judging by their basic shape, that narrows it down to five thousand planets within traveling distance. What else do we know about them? Information."

"They're green," Rose pointed out.

I chimed in from the end of the table "Good sense of smell. Really good sense of smell."

"The pig technology," Harriet added.

The Doctor hummed and Rose snapped her fingers "The spaceship in the Thames, you said slipstream engine?"

" _It's getting in,_ " Mickey shouted.

Harriet suddenly straightened up "Wait a minute. Did you notice? When they fart, if you'll pardon the word, it doesn't just smell like a fart, if you'll pardon the word, it's something else. What is it? It's more like…"

"Bad breath," Rose and I exclaimed at the same time.

"Calcium decay," the Doctor shouted "Now, that narrows it down."

The blonde turned her head to the phone "We're getting there, Mum!"

" _Too late,_ " Mickey replied.

The Doctor was mumbling under his breath "Calcium phosphate. Organic calcium. Living calcium. Creatures made out of living calcium. What else? What else? Hyphenated surname. Yes! That narrows it down to one planet. Raxacoricofallapatorius!"

I exchanged a baffled look with Indra and mouthed 'Raxacoricofallapatorious?' He just shrugged, looking equally as stunned and creeped out by the name.

"Get into the kitchen," the Time Lord ordered "Calcium, weakened by the compression field. Acetic acid. Vinegar!"

"Just like Hannibal," Harriet noted, getting a nod from the man next to me.

The Doctor smiled "Just like Hannibal," he agreed "Mickey, have you got any vinegar?"

" _How should I know?_ " the boy exclaimed, his voice tinged with hysteria. Not that I could blame him.

Rose leaned forward onto the desk "Cupboard by the sink, middle shelf."

" _Oh, give it here. What do you need?_ " Jackie asked. The sound of a door splintering caused us to pick up a pace.

"Anything with vinegar!" the Doctor repeated.

" _Gherkins. Yeah, pickled onions. Pickled eggs,_ " Jackie commented as she shuffled through the shelves.

"And you kiss this man?" the Doctor turned to Rose. Over the phone, we heard a splash followed by a fart and then a splat. That sounded disgusting and I couldn't imagine it smelling nice either.

"Hannibal?" Rose asked relieved.

"Hannibal crossed the Alps by dissolving boulders with vinegar," I answered her.

"Oh. Well, there you go then," Rose said and held up her glass for a toast. I joined them with another half-full glass of Scotch. It really was pretty decent. Not the best but not the cheapest either.

" _The experts are dead, murdered right in front of me by alien hands. Peoples of the Earth, heed my words. These visitors do not come in peace. Our inspectors have searched the sky above our heads and they have found massive weapons of destruction capable of being deployed within forty-five seconds. Our technicians can baffle the alien probes, but not for long. We are facing extinction unless we strike first. The United Kingdom stands directly beneath the belly of the mothership. I beg of the United Nations, pass an emergency resolution. Give us the access codes. A nuclear strike at the heart of the beast is our only chance of survival because from this moment on it is my solemn duty to inform you planet Earth is at war,_ " the Prime Slitheen spoke on the TV.

"He's making it up. There's no threat," the Doctor ranted.

"Do you think they'll believe him?" Harriet asked in a small voice.

"They did last time," the Doctor shrugged and opened the shutters, revealing the other members of the Slitheen family "You get the codes, release the missiles, but not into space because there's nothing there. You attack every other country on Earth. They retaliate, fight back. World War Three. The whole planet gets nuked."

"And we can sit through it safe in our spaceship waiting in the Thames. Not crashed, just parked. Only two minutes away." a big woman pushed herself through the others.

"But you'll destroy the planet, this beautiful place. What for?" Harriet asked desperately.

"Profit," the Doctor said stonily "That's what the signal is beaming into space. An advert."

"The sale of the century. We reduce the Earth to molten slag, then sell it piece by piece. Radioactive chucks, capable of powering every cut-price starliner and budget cargo ship. There's a recession out there, Doctor. People are buying cheap. This rock becomes raw fuel," the woman boasted. I stared at her with a raised eyebrow. It seemed like every bad guy ever seemed to have a thing for monologues. Even Nik was prone to them. Why would they tell the 'good guys'? It makes no sense at all.

"I give you a choice. Leave this planet or I'll stop you," the Doctor reasoned.

The Slitheen laughed "What, you? Trapped in your little box?"

"Yes. Me," the Doctor said straightfaced and re-closed the shutters.

" _All right, Doctor,_ " Jackie began " _I'm not saying I trust you but there must be something we can do._ "

"If we could ferment the port, we could make acetic acid," Harriet mused, sounding like she was daydreaming.

The Doctor sighed "There's always a way out. But I can't guarantee your daughter will be safe," he said in the direction of the speaker.

" _Don't you dare, Doctor,_ " Jackie threatened.

"Do it," Rose said with conviction.

" _Please don't. She's my daughter. She's just a kid,_ " Jackie begged.

"Do you think I don't know that? Because this is my life, Jackie. It's not fun, it's not smart, it's just standing up and making a decision because nobody else will."

"Then do it," Rose and I said simultaneously.

"I could save the world, but lose you. Both of you," he replied, looking from me to Rose and back.

"Except it's not your decision, Doctor. It's mine," Harriet spoke up importantly.

" _And who the hell are you?_ " Rose's mother demanded angrily.

"Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North. The only elected representative in this room, chosen by the people for the people. And on behalf of the people, I command you. Do it."

"How do we get out?" Rose asked as Mickey made preparations.

"We don't. We stay here." the Doctor shuffled through the Emergency Protocols "Use the Buffalo password. It overrides everything."

" _We can't go nuclear. We don't have the codes,_ " Mickey reminded after explaining to Jackie what he's doing.

"We don't need to. The only place that we need to destroy is Downing Street. All we need is an ordinary missile," I said.

"What's the first category?"

" _Sub Harpoon, UGM-A4A,_ " Mickey's voice shook.

The Doctor nodded, looking between Rose and me "That's the one. Select! Fire!" the Doctor commanded.

A mouse click later and the missile launched. I smiled at the others. I wasn't sure whether they would survive it but I could guarantee that I would. As an Original, I was sadly pretty much indestructible.

"How solid are these?" Harriet worried.

"Not solid enough. Built for short range attack, nothing this big," the Doctor shrugged apologetically.

Rose looked at all of us and then huffed "All right, now I'm making the decision. I'm not going to die. We're going to ride this one out. It's like what they say about earthquakes. You can survive them by standing under a doorframe. Now, this cupboard's small so it's strong. Come and help me. Come on."

Harriet and Indra hurried to help her, while the Doctor stood and talked Mickey through neutralizing an interception. When the cupboard was empty, the four of us squeezed in, huddling together.

"Here we go. Nice knowing you three! Hannibal." Harriet closed her eyes tightly, gripping my hand. The cupboard shook, then rolled through the remains of the building inside its steel shell. The Doctor eased himself off of me and kicked the door to open it "Made in Britain," Harriet smiled relieved as she stepped onto the rubble outside.

"Oh my god, are you all right?" a police officer asked, coming over to us.

"Harriet Jones. MP, Flydale North. I want you to contact UN immediately. Tell the ambassadors the crisis is over. They can step down. Go on, tell the news."

And so it began. The reign of Harriet Jones. The officer blinked, but hurried away, to talk to the reporters.

"Someone's got a hell of a job sorting this lot out. Oh, Lord. We haven't even got a Prime Minister," Harriet breathed.

"Maybe you should have a go," the Doctor suggested.

"Me? Huh. I'm only a back-bencher."

"I'd vote for you," Rose grinned.

Harriet looked at her as if she was crazy "Now, don't be silly. Look, I'd better go and see if I can help. Hang on! We're safe! The Earth is safe!" We followed her through the rubble and watched as she walked towards the cameras.

"Indra. Could I talk to you for a moment before we go?" I requested, pulling the man to the side. There was no way I could leave him with the memories of what I told him about my family. Well, I could but I didn't want to.

He smiled at me "Thank you, Tyra. For helping me in there."

I shrugged "It's alright." Then I stared into his eyes and murmured "You will not remember what I told you about my family or myself. The only thing you will know is that I helped to calm you down in there and that you appreciate my help." Once I was done, I sighed and rubbed my forehead, watching the man walk off.

When I rejoined the Doctor and Rose, the alien had a triumphant expression on his face "I thought I knew the name. Harriet Jones, future Prime Minister. Elected for three successive terms. The architect of Britain's Golden Age," the Doctor explained to Rose.

Back at the estate, I was outside the Tardis, leaning against the wall next to Mickey. The Doctor had caught the child who gratified the blue box and had him clean the outside with a sponge "Good lad," the Time Lord praised "Graffiti that again and I'll have you. Now, beat it."

"I just went down the shop and I was thinking," Mickey started, drawing our attention "You know like the whole world's changed. Aliens and spaceships all in public. And here it is." He showed us the headline that read _Alien Hoax_ "How could they do that? They saw it."

"They're just not ready. You're happy to believe in something that's invisible but if it's staring you in the face, nope, can't see it." The Time Lord wrapped an arm around my shoulder lightly while he spoke "There's a scientific explanation for that. You're thick."

Mickey rolled his eyes "We're just idiots."

"Well, not all of you," the Doctor admitted, smiling at the boy sheepishly. He reached into his pocket and held out a CD "Present for you, Mickey. That's a virus. Put it online. It'll destroy every mention of me. I'll cease to exist."

"What do you want to do that for?" he frowned.

The Doctor sighed, his arms dropping to his side "Because you're right, I am dangerous. I don't want anybody following me."

"How can you say that and then take her with you?" the boy demanded.

I looked over to the door of the block "Can I say something, Mickey?" I waited until he nodded before continuing "Rose doesn't deserve you. You are an amazing man, Mickey and I can tell that she doesn't appreciate it as much as she should."

"You talk as if you have experience," he raised an eyebrow, sounding slightly angry but also curious "You're only sixteen…"

I sighed "My older sister likes to date worthless men because they shower her with the attention she craves. Don't get me wrong. I love her to bits but seeing them and seeing you. Don't let anyone tell you that you're not worth it." With those words I turned around and headed into the Tardis, waiting for the other two to finish.


	6. Dalek

"That was nice what you said to Mickey earlier," the Doctor spoke up when he entered the Tardis to find me staring at the console.

I glanced at him and shrugged "I was only telling him the truth. I hated the way every male treated my sister and if someone was genuinely interested in her, my brothers would run them off."

"Is she your younger sister?"

"No," I shook my head "Rebekah is two years older than me. I'm the youngest. Enough about that though… Where are we going next?"

The Doctor shrugged "We'll see. Maybe I'll take you to Barcelona."

"The city?" I frowned, tilting my head in confusion.

"No, the planet," he corrected, grinning up at me "They have dogs with no noses."

I snorted "Really? That's a thing?"

"Imagine how often you end up telling that joke and it's still funny," the Time Lord chuckled.

I was about to open my mouth to reply when Rose came in, chucking her bad to the side "Let's go."

The Doctor grinned again and started running around the console, pressing random buttons, pulling levers and doing whatever it took to make the Tardis go. Suddenly, there was an alarm and the Time Lord hurried to take a look at the monitor "That's weird," he mumbled and pressed some other buttons "Let's go take a look then."

"So what is it?" Rose questioned as soon as we exited the Tardis "What's wrong?"

The Doctor shrugged "Don't know. Some kind of signal drawing the Tardis off course."

"And where are we?" the blonde continued.

"Earth," the Time Lord replied "Utah, North America. About half a mile underground."

Rose tilted her head "And when are we?"

"Two thousand and twelve." The Doctor bent down to look at a display case closely.

"God," the human girl sighed "That's so close. So I should be twenty-six." I blinked a couple of times when the light came on and glanced around in surprise. An alien museum? In Utah? Whose idea of a joke was that? "Blimey. It's a great big museum."

"An alien museum," the Doctor added "Someone's got a hobby. They must have spent a fortune on this. Chunks of meteorite, moon dust. That's the milometer from the Roswell spaceship."

Rose gasped "That's a bit of Slitheen! That's a Slitheen's arm. It's been stuffed."

"Since they blew up, I sincerely doubt it's a piece of Slitheen. They're not the only family on the planet," I mumbled, looking at the arm with a small grimace. That was just weird. Why would someone spend that much money on stuff that could be fake?

"Oh, look at you," the Doctor murmured softly, staring at a metal head. It looked sort of like the heads that robots had in movies, only there was a teardrop or something etched into one eye.

"What is that?" I asked, coming to stand next to him.

The Doctor tilted his head at the head "An old friend of mine. Well, enemy. The stuff of nightmares reduced to an exhibit. I'm getting old."

"Is that where the signal is coming from?" Rose blinked, grimacing at the head. There were wires sticking out at the bottom, so it was definitely a part of a whole metal suit.

"No," the alien shook his head, reaching out with his hand "It's stone dead. The signal's alive. Something's reaching out, calling for help." He touched the display case and reared back when an alarm started up. I winced at the loudness of it and barely resisted, clutching my ears. Armed guards rushed in from all sides and cut us off from the Tardis.

Rose leaned up to whisper into the Doctor's ear "If someone's collecting aliens, that makes you Exhibit A." I shot her a dark look. Was she really stupid enough to say that out loud in front of a group of soldiers who were working for the guy running an underground alien museum? That was just stupid and could get the Doctor into more trouble than anyone wanted.

We were lead to an elevator and went up several floors. Outside of an office door, we were stopped by a woman who sized us up "Those are the intruders?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"This way," the woman gestured, opening the door to the office.

An almost bald man was sitting in an important looking chair. Yes, the chair was more important looking than the man. He was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. I would have expected someone more… well, important… "What does it do?"

"Well, you see the tubes on the side?" a British kid to the side pointed out "It must be to channel something. I think maybe fuel."

The Doctor winced "I really wouldn't hold it like that."

"Shut it," the woman behind us sneered.

"Really, though," the Time Lord stressed "That's wrong."

The British dude looked at the Doctor in shock "Is it dangerous?"

"No," the alien grinned suddenly "It just looks silly." I looked up at him in disbelief and couldn't hold back the snort of amusement. The Doctor rolled his eyes at me and reached for the item, only freezing when firing bolts clicked all around us. I stiffened and got ready to step between them but the man in the chair raised his hand and handed to curved, palm-sized object "You just need to be…" The Doctor stroked the artifact and it made a note "Delicate."

"It's a musical instrument," the man murmured in interest.

The Doctor nodded "And it's a long way from home."

"Here," the man reached out "Let me." His touch seemed harsher than the Time Lord's and some really unpleasant notes sounded. I hissed and covered my ears. Damn my vampire hearing…

"I did say delicate," the Time Lord pointed out "It reacts to the smallest fingerprint. It needs precision." The man finally got the hang of it and the Doctor smiled "Very good. Quite the expert."

"As are you," the man murmured, greedy eyes set on the Doctor. He casually tossed the instrument aside and onto the floor "Who exactly are you?"

"I'm the Doctor. And who are you?"

The man scoffed "Like you don't know. We're hidden away with the most valuable collection of extra-terrestrial artifacts in the world and you just stumbled in by mistake."

"That sums him up pretty well, actually," I smirked.

The man's eyes turned to me and looked me up and down. Gross? "The question is, how did you get in? Fifty-three floors down with your little cat burglar accomplices. You're quite a collector yourself. They're rather pretty."

"She's going to smack you if you keep calling her she," Rose snapped.

"They're British too," the man exclaimed "Hey, little Lord Fauntleroy. Got you a girlfriend… And she's blonde."

'British in America' smiled at Rose charmingly "This is Mister Henry Van Statten."

Rose raised an eyebrow "And who is he when he's at home?"

"Mister Van Statten owns the internet," the boy told us.

I crossed my arms, decidedly unimpressed "Somehow I really, really doubt that."

"Don't be stupid," Rose rolled her eyes "No one owns the internet."

Van Statten looked at her triumphantly "And let's just keep the whole world thinking that way, right kids?"

"So you're just about an expert in everything except the things in your museum," the Doctor glared "Anything you don't understand, you lock up."

"And you claim greater knowledge?" Van Statten challenged.

The Time Lord smirked "I don't need to make claims, I know how good I am."

"And yet, I captured you," the man shot back "Right next to the Cage. What were you doing down there?"

"You tell me."

Van Statten looked at the alien suspiciously "The cage contains my one living specimen."

"And what's that?" the Doctor clarified.

"Like you don't know."

"Show me."

Van Statten raised an eyebrow "You want to see it?"

Rose let out a loud breath "Blimey, you can smell the testosterone."

"Goddard," Van Statten demanded of the woman who brought us in here "Inform the Cage we're heading down. You, English. Look after the girls. Go and canoodle or spoon or whatever it is you British do. And you, Doctor with no name, come and see my pet." The Doctor left the room with Van Statten, Goddard and the guards, leaving Rose and me with the British guy who seemed a bit useless.

He cleared his throat "So… You wanna see my workshop?"

"Sure," Rose flirted, making me groan internally. I really didn't want to touch that with a ten-foot pole, never mind being near Rose while she was flirting with people who were not her boyfriend.

We once again used the elevator to get to Adam's workshop. I finally found out the guy's name. Not that I cared too much… "Sorry about the mess," he apologized, trying to clear some papers off the desk "Mister Van Statten sort of lets me do my own thing, so long as I deliver the goods. What do you think that is?" He handed Rose an inch thick piece of metal.

"Er… A lump of metal?" Rose guessed.

"Yeah," Adam laughed a bit "Yeah, but I think, well, I'm almost certain, it's from the hull of a spacecraft. The thing is, it's all true. Everything the United Nations tries to keep quiet. Spacecrafts, aliens, visitors to Earth. They really exist."

I jumped up onto a table that had enough space for me to sit on "No," I deadpanned "You don't say."

"I know," he grinned excitedly, not catching the sarcasm that could have hit anyone in the face "It sounds incredible but I honestly believe the whole universe is just teeming with life."

"I'm gob-smacked, yeah," Rose nodded "And you do what? Sit here and catalogue it?"

Adam sighed "Best job in the world."

"Imagine if you could get out there," the blonde smiled "Travel amongst the stars and see it for real."

I groaned "Please don't tell me you want to take him along? You do remember that you have a boyfriend, right?"

Rose glared at me "Shut up," she hissed, glaring at me "Just… shut up and keep out of my business."

"Right," I mumbled, leaning back. Why did I even try? It never worked on Bex… Why should it work on the girl who seemed to hate me for some unknown reason? There was a reason why I mostly stayed quiet. Well, that and the fact that I didn't want to Doctor to get too curious. I was scared about the moment he'd find out what I was. Would he throw me out? I couldn't really see the Doctor being discriminating against vampires but… I hadn't really known him for too long, so I really shouldn't judge just yet.

"So," Rose turned back to Adam "How did you end up here?"

Adam shrugged "Van Statten has agents all over the world looking for geniuses to recruit."

"Oh, right. You're a genius," the blonde human mocked. For once, I actually agreed with her. If that guy was a genius I was the Queen of England.

"Sorry, but yeah. I can't help it. I was born clever," Adam explained "When I was eight, I logged into the US Defence System. Nearly caused World War Three."

I frowned "Wait, you think that's funny? Are you seriously that much of an idiot?"

The guy let out a short laugh, ignoring the true meaning of my words for the second time "Well, you should have been there just to see them running about. Fantastic!"

"You sound like the Doctor," Rose pointed out. In what way did he sound like the Doctor? Because of his use of 'Fantastic'? That's the only reason I could see…

"Are you and him…?" Adam hinted.

Rose shook her head "No, we're just friends.

The boy smiled in relief "Good."

"Why is it good?" the blonde flirted.

"It just is," he gave back, looking a bit sheepish. Did he really not hear me say that Rose has a boyfriend or does it just not matter to anyone? Mickey really did deserve better than a girl who flirts with someone the first chance she got.

Rose looked up at the boy, a challenging gleam in her eyes "So, wouldn't you rather be downstairs? I mean, you've got these bits of metal and stuff but Mister Van Statten's got a living creature down there."

"Yeah," Adam nodded "Well, I did ask but he keeps it to himself. Although, if you're a genius, it doesn't take long to patch through on the Comm system."

"Let's have a look then," the blonde urged, stepping closer to him. I swung myself off the table and positioned myself in full view of the monitor. For some reason, I had a bad feeling… Something was going to happen and it would be bad.

Adam started typing on his computer "It doesn't do much, the alien. It's weird. It's kind of useless. It's just like this great big pepper pot."

We watched the alien in the vault screaming as a guy in an orange suit took a big drill to its casing "It's being tortured," Rose exclaimed "Where's the Doctor."

"I don't know," the boy shrugged.

Rose took a deep breath "Take me down there now."

"Rose, I don't think that's a good idea," I pointed out "If there Doctor has already been down there then he… Then something is going on. Plus, he said we should stay here."

The blonde human whirled around and glared at me "So I'm supposed to let someone get tortured?"

"I'm just saying that you don't know what that thing is," I told her, tugging at my hair in annoyance. Why did she have to be so stupid? I wouldn't run into a full cave full of lions even if I didn't know what they were… "For all you know, it could kill you the moment you step through the door."

Adam stepped between us "I can take you down there. I might not have the clearance but… There's something I can do." I raised my hands in exasperation and let them drop. Here I was, trying to be the fucking voice of reason but no one seems to care. Fine then… While I didn't want to go with them, I didn't think I had a choice. Adam lead up the floor we had arrived on and I could see the Tardis in the shadows. How none of these idiots noticed a big blue box, I didn't know but hey. Better for us.

"Hold it right there," one of the guards barked at us.

Adam just flashed him his ID and quickly put it away again "Level Three access. Special clearance from Mister Van Statten." They let us through after that "Don't get too close," the boy warned as soon as we were inside the Cage and the door closed behind us.

"Hello," Rose smiled softly, stepping closer to the alien "Are you in pain? My name's Rose Tyler. I've got a friend, he can help. He's called the Doctor. What's your name?"

"Yes," a scratchy, mechanical sounding voice answered her. As soon as the thing spoke, the two lights on its head lit up.

The blonde blinked "What?"

"I am in pain," it murmured "They torture me but they still fear me. Do you fear me?"

"Rose," I admonished "Stay back."

She ignored me though and took another small step forward "No."

The pepper pot looked at her with "I am dying."

"We can help," Rose tried, actually sounding close to tears. For me, it sounded like the thing wanted something. It wanted Rose to do something and he was manipulating her to do it. And I knew manipulation. I had seen and done it way too often to not recognize it now.

"I welcome death," the pepper pot said "But I am glad that before I die I have met a human who was not afraid."

Rose swallowed heavily "Isn't there anything I can do?"

"My race is dead," it continued "And I shall die alone."

Rose reached for the pepper pot's head and that's where I stepped in. I ran forward, pushing the girl back. Something wasn't right here and the alien seemed to wait for her to touch it. The blonde didn't take my interference too nicely and pushed me back. Since I was already a bit off balance, I stumbled backward, falling into the pepper pot "Ah," I hissed when my hand brushed the metal. I glanced down at it to see it slightly blackened.

"Genetic material extrapolated," the pepper pot shouted in glee, fidgeting in its restraints "Initiate cellular reconstruction."

It broke the chains and a man burst into the Cage "What the hell have you done?" He walked up to the pepper pot, carrying his drill. The alien raised its sink plunger "What are you going to do? Sucker me to death?" I blinked once and then the sucker covered his mouth and nose. It didn't take long for the man's head to cave in and I tilted my head in surprise. This would be a good method to kill someone. I'm actually impressed. A second later, I startled out of my admiration for the killing style and ran out of the door just before they closed the vault door. The alien had the perfect balance between cold-blooded murder and creativity. Kol and I had to work hard to achieve that…

"You've got to keep it in that cell," the Doctor called from the TV on the wall.

Rose pushed her way through "It's all Tyra's fault if she hadn't touched it…"

"I only touched it because you pushed me, Rose," I reminded her from my place next to the vault door.

The guard glanced at the number lock "I've sealed the compartment. It can't get out… That lock's got a billion combinations."

"A Dalek's a genius," the Doctor shook his head "It can calculate a thousand billion combinations in one second flat." I blinked at the lock as it circled through the numbers quickly, displaying the correct code. The door beeped and started to open "Rose, Tyra, get out of there."

"De Maggio, take the civilians and get them out alive. That is your job, got that?" the guard who had stopped us before commanded.

De Maggio nodded and pointed at us "You, with me." The four of us started running down a corridor "Civilians! Let them through!" We squeezed through the incoming phalanx of guards. When we were another two corners further, I looked over my shoulder. The heartbeats of all the guards were slowly getting less and less until there was complete silence.

"Stairs," Rose exclaimed in glee "That's more like it. It hasn't got legs. It's stuck!"

"It's coming. Get up," De Maggio hurried.

I rolled my eyes "Don't stand there, run. Do you honestly believe that something that the Doctor is afraid of can't get up some stairs?"

"Great big alien death machine defeated by a flight of stairs," Adam taunted.

"Now listen to me. I demand that you return to your cage. If you want to negotiate then I can guarantee that Mister van Statten will be willing to talk. I accept that we imprisoned you and maybe that was wrong, but people have died, and that stops right now. The killing stops. Have you got that? I demand that you surrender. Is that clear?" De Maggio tried to negotiate.

The Dalek was still for a second before "Elevate!" It started hovering, gliding up the stairs without trouble.

"Oh, my God," Rose breathed, staring down wide-eyed.

I started pushing her and Adam up the stairs, looking back at the guard "Come on. You can't stop it."

"Someone's got to try," she called back.

"Someone already did and they're all dead," I pointed out.

She shook her head "Get out! Just run." De Maggio started firing at the Dalek, missing the eyepiece every time.

I looked at her for another moment before I started running after Rose and Adam. It didn't take long for me to catch up to them with a bit of vampire speed. Still not enough to draw attention though. We practically fell into the Loading Bay where the commander snapped at us to get out of the way. The other two hurried past a guard at the entrance, stopping in the doorway for a moment "Really?" I rolled my eyes "What part of 'Run' don't you understand?"

"It was looking at you," Rose pointed out, narrowing her eyes at me.

I shrugged "So?"

"It wants to slaughter us," Adam panted.

"I know," the blonde frowned "But it was looking right at her."

Adam glanced at me "What are you trying to say?"

Rose threw her hands up "I don't know. It's like there's something inside…" We came to another staircase and started going up. Adam was already up a few more floors than Rose and I. The Doctor would probably kill me if I leave Rose behind. She was slower than me, so I kinda felt responsible… I didn't want her to die, even though she seemed to not like me much. When we were a few levels up, the blonde's phone started ringing "This isn't the best time," she panted.

" _Where are you?_ " the Doctor's tinny voice sounded from the speaker.

"Level forty-nine," I called over.

The Doctor inhaled sharply " _You've got to keep moving. The vault's being sealed off up at level forty-six._ "

"Can't you stop them closing?" Rose stopped.

I grabbed the phone from her and urged her further up the stairs "Hurry. We don't have a lot of time. Doctor, it's me. What level?" I did hear it before but he didn't need to know that.

" _Forty-six. I can't wait much longer, Tyra and I can't help you. Make sure that you and Rose get through… Run!_ "

Rose and I ran side by side down the corridor of level forty-six. Adam wasn't anywhere in sight and I wasn't sure how much time we had left "We're nearly there, Doctor. Two seconds."

" _Doctor,_ " Van Statten's voice sounded through the speaker of the phone " _I can't sustain the power. The whole system is failing. Doctor, you've got to close the bulkheads."_

" _I'm sorry,"_ the Time Lord whispered, hitting a key.

A klaxon sounded and the bulkhead started lowering. There was no way Rose would make it at the speed she was going… Okay… No choice but for me to… I wrapped an arm around the blonde's waist and sped us underneath the bulkhead and to the safe side.

"What the fuck?" the blonde hissed, pushing me away from her "How did you do that?"

I shrugged "I'm a fast runner. Oh, and by the way. You're welcome for saving you from the… murderous pepper pot."

"I didn't want your help," she sneered, storming off towards the elevator "I'll tell the Doctor about this."

I narrowed my eyes at her and pushed her against the wall, making sure to wrap my hand around the bottom of the phone to keep the Doctor from hearing anything "You're gonna forget this happened," I compelled Rose "You're not going to tell the Doctor anything about me…"

Rose blinked a couple of times and I stepped back "What happened? The Dalek? Where is it?"

"On the other side of that bulkhead," I gestured over my shoulder "Oh, and here. Put him out of his misery, would you?" I shoved the phone back into her hands and walked over to the elevator, not caring whether Rose followed or not. She did and I leaned back against the metal wall of the elevator, ready for this shit to end. The problem was that I hadn't fed in a bit and I was definitely feeling the strain of the compulsion I used. Being in a confined space with a human wasn't the thing I wanted to do right now… Maybe I could get Adam or that asshole Van Statten to lend a vein or something.

As soon as we stepped out, the Doctor was on us. He pulled me into a tight hug "You're alright," he mumbled "Both of you are." The Time Lord also pulled the blonde into his arms "No thanks to him."

"I said I was sorry," Adam exclaimed.

"Doctor… What are we going to do with the pepper pot locked downstairs with all of the dead bodies?" I questioned.

The Doctor ran a hand through his short hair "Kill it?"

"All the guns are useless," Goddard pointed out "And the alien weapons are in the vault."

Adam looked away from Rose "Only the catalogued ones."

"Let's go then," Rose clapped, linking her arm with the boy's. The Doctor rolled his eyes at the blonde and looked at me "Are you coming?"

I shook my head "I'll wait for you in the Tardis. Had enough of running for one day."

"Are you alright?" the Doctor questioned quietly, raising one of his hands to my face.

"I'm fine, Doc. Go ahead and kill the big, bad pepper pot." The Doctor searched my eyes for a moment before he nodded and ran out, following Adam and Rose. A smirk slowly spread over my lips and I turned towards the man who had leered at me earlier "You know, I really don't like you."

Van Statten looked at me in appreciation again "Why wouldn't you?" he questioned "I can rock your world."

I let out a short laugh "Oh, darling… You wouldn't even know where to start." I flashed to Goddard and quickly compelled her to forget what she's going to see here "Now for you. Van Statten… I'm afraid I'm a bit hungry right now…" Black veins crept up under my eyes and I lunged at his throat, drinking from the vein. Once I had enough, I pulled back, my face changing back to normal "Thank you. You should cover that up, don't you think?"

"Y-Yes," he stuttered, grabbing a scarf from the coat-rack in the corner "I… What are you?"

I smirked "Oh, I think you know."

"Vampire."

"At last, he shows intelligence," I gasped mockingly, turning to walk out of the room "Remember. Not a word. Either of you. Neither is going to remember what I just did. Although… How about getting rid of him? After all, so many people died tonight. Think about it." I really loved toying with assholes occasionally. It was so much more fun than just feeding. Sometimes it's even quite nice to 'fuck and feed' as Kol called it. Not that my brothers knew much about what I did. They would flip even worse than with Bekah. My older brothers were stupidly over-protective, even though Kol let up a bit when I argued that he was allowed to have fun as well. It's been a while though since I did that… It wasn't as if I had time to feed much these days. Maybe I should get the Tardis to stock blood bags. While they weren't too pleasant, it made for easier access to blood.

During my last few thoughts, I was leaning against the Tardis. A hum sounded through my mind and I jumped in surprise. What the… "Was that you?" I questioned the blue box, feeling a bit stupid. Another hum was my answer. Huh! Sentient machine really was sentient. Impressive "Can you maybe stock some blood in my room? I'm guessing you know what I am, even though the Doctor probably doesn't?" The feeling of agreement waved through me and the picture of a freezer in my room was projected into my mind "You're a clever little thing, aren't you?"

"A piece of home," the Doctor's voice wavered from the other end of the corridor "Better than nothing."

Rose had her hand on the Time Lord's arm "Is that the end of it, the Time War?"

"I'm the only one left," the Doctor smiled sadly "I win. How about that?"

Rose smiled encouragingly "The Dalek survived. Maybe some of your people did too." Sadness radiated out from the Tardis. Was this going to be a regular thing now? How she got through to my mind though, I didn't know. Maybe that was why it took so long for her to start communicating with me.

"I'd know," the Doctor shook his head and tapped his temple "In here. Feels like there's no one."

"Well, then," Rose grinned brightly "Good thing I'm not going anywhere."

I pushed off from the Tardis and stepped to the side when the Doctor was about to open the door "Neither am, by the way."

Adam ran up to us "We'd better get out. Van Statten's disappeared. They're closing down the base. Goddard says they're going to fill it full of cement like it never existed."

"About time," Rose nodded.

"I'll have to go back home," the boy sighed sadly.

The Doctor rolled his eyes at the two of them again and I shook my head at him in amusement "Better hurry up then. Next flight to Heathrow leaves at fifteen hundred hours."

"Adam was saying that all his life he wanted to see the stars," the blonde hinted.

"No," I mumbled "Please don't take the idiot along. I could really do without that…"

The Doctor seemed to agree with me, whether he heard what I said or not "Tell him to go and stand outside, then."

"He's all on his own," Rose whispered "And he did help."

"He left both of you down there," the Doctor snapped.

Rose crossed her arms "So did you and we got out."

"What are you talking about?" Adam blinked in confusion and a bit of panic "We've got to leave."

The Time Lord sighed deeply "On your head." He finished unlocking the Tardis and walked in with me following.

"What're you doing?" Adam wondered from outside "She said cement. She wasn't joking. We're going to get sealed in." Rose joined us in the console room as well "Doctor? What are you doing standing inside a box? Rose?" He crept in a gaped at the sheer size of the inside. The door slammed closed and the Tardis dematerialized.


	7. The Long Game

I was waiting in the Tardis with Adam. It was his first trip and I doubted that he would handle it well. The first thing he did once he entered the Tardis a few hours ago was faint. Not the most promising start…

The door opened and Rose called "Adam? Out you come." I followed the boy out of the door and pulled it closed behind me.

"Oh, my God," Adam breathed, jaw pretty much on the ground. I stepped over to the Doctor and leaned against a pillar next to him, waiting for Rose to do whatever it was she had planned.

"Don't worry," the blonde soothed "You'll get used to it."

Adam blinked around with wide eyes "Where are we?"

"Good question," Rose nodded and glanced back at the Doctor for a moment "Let's see… So, er, judging by the architecture, I'd say we're around the year two hundred thousand. If you listen…" She waited for the boy's confirmation before continuing "Engines. We're on some sort of space station. Yeah, definitely a space station. It's a bit warm in here… They could turn the heating down. Tell you what – Let's try that fate. Come on!" The blonde lead us through a metal gate to a massive viewing window.

I smirked at the Doctor "Wherever did Rose know all that from, right?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes "Well, she wanted to impress that new boyfriend of hers."

"I'm still wondering what happened to Mickey," I sighed, running a hand through my hair "She acts like he doesn't exist."

"Don't think about it too much," he murmured and stepped over to the window when Rose indicated for him to explain the view "The Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. And there it is, planet Earth at its height. Covered with mega-cities, five moons, population ninety-six billion. The hub of a galactic domain stretching across a million planets, a million species with mankind right in the middle." That proved too much for Adam – Again! – and he fell backward in a dead faint "He's your boyfriend."

Rose sighed, not even turning to check on the boy "Not anymore."

Once Adam was back with us, we went to what appeared to be the central hug "Come on, Adam," the Doctor encouraged "Open your mind. You're going to like this. Fantastic period of history. The human race at its most intelligent. Culture, art, politics. This era has got some fine food, good manners."

"Out of the way," a man snapped, shoving me into the Doctor.

I steadied myself and glanced up at him in amusement "Good manners?"

Suddenly, there were a lot of people bustling around, opening up food vending stations and serving customers at their counters "Thank you very much indeed. Somebody there? That's great. What do you want, love? Alright, keep moving. I'll be with you lot in a minute. Here you are. One at a time. What now, what was it? Kronkburger with cheese, Kronkburger with pajatos. Do you want a drink? Oi, you, mate. Stop pushing. Get back. I said, back."

"Fine cuisine?" Rose snorted.

The Doctor looked from me to the blonde and threw his hands in the air "My watch must be wrong." He glanced down "No, it's fine. It's weird."

"That's what comes of showing off," Rose admonished "Your history's not as good as you thought it was."

"My history is perfect," he murmured, sounding honestly confused although Rose didn't seem to notice.

The blonde rolled her eyes "Well, obviously not."

"They're all human," Adam pointed out "What about the millions of planets, the millions of species? Where are they?"

"Good question," the Doctor nodded before he stopped "Actually, that is a good question. Adam, me old mate, you must be starving."

The boy shook his head, a bit green in the face "No, I'm just a bit time sick."

I tapped the Doctor's shoulder "Can I go look around? I promise I'll stay on this floor."

"Sure," the Doctor shrugged "Just… Don't wander off."

"Sure thing," I called over my shoulder, running off. It didn't take long until I was back in the room where the Tardis and the observation window were. I curled up on the window sill and stared outside. So much had changed… Over the course of a week, my life had completely turned around and I was actually happy with the way my life was at the moment. That's something I'm not used to at all… But in a way, I kind of liked it. I liked travelling with the Doctor.

Suddenly, a familiar voice reached my ears "Give me access." Adam. What was he doing? I got up and quietly made my way in the direction his voice was coming from "Give me…" He paused for a moment "I can learn anything." I saw him put his hand onto a vertical console "Let's try computers. From the twenty-first century to the present date, give me the history of the microprocessor."

I was still hidden from him, waiting to see what he would do. I figured the Doctor would most likely try to kill me once he found out that I just stood by while Adam did who knows what.

The boy pulled out a phone… Was that Rose's? Where did he get that from? "Mum, Dad, keep this message, okay? Whatever you do, don't erase it. Save it. You got that? The microprocessor became redundant in the year two thousand nineteen, replaced by a system called SMT. That's Single Molecule Transcription." Something seemed to have happened because he slowly put down his arm "No, no, no, no, no! What're you doing? Come back! Why are you doing that? What's Floor sixteen? What's down there?"

I watched him walked out of the room and followed him to the lift. Instead of getting on with him, I turned to a man who was about to walk past me "Excuse me," I called out, making him stop and turn around "Erm… Could you tell me what Floor sixteen is?"

The man blinked "Medical non-emergency."

"Why would the computer ask him to go down there?" I mumbled to myself.

The man's face cleared up "You can't access a screen without a chip. Maybe his is broken."

"Yeah, maybe," I agreed "Thanks for the help." Oh, this spelled out trouble… I felt like the 'genius' was about to do something momentously stupid. I leaned back against the wall to wait this out. From the position opposite the elevators, I could check and see whether Adam comes back or not. I didn't have to wait long. Twenty minutes after he went down, he was back. I followed him into a white room with a chair in the middle. Weird… What exactly was that for? He settled down in the chair and was about to click his fingers "What are you going?" I glared at him, stepping closer.

"T – Tyra," he stuttered "How long have you –?"

"Followed you?" I finished his sentence "Long enough to know that the Doctor is going to murder you. What the hell were you thinking?"

Adam sat up "I can explain… I was just trying to help."

I shook my head "As if. I'm going to find the Doctor now…" With those words, I turned around. Before I could reach the door, something heavy hit the back of my head, snapping my neck.

The Doctor was staring at the Editor in confusion. How did he know? "Someone's been telling you lies."

The Editor smirked in amusement "Young master Adam Mitchell?" He called up the holo-monitor showing the scene on Floor 139. Adam was writhing in the broadcast chair while Tyra was lying on the ground, seemingly unconscious.

"Oh, my God," Rose gasped "His head…"

The Time Lord took a deep breath, still staring at the horrifying image "What the hell's he done? What the hell's he gone and done? They're reading his mind… He's telling them everything. And what did he do to Tyra?"

"And through him, I know everything about you," the Editor laughed "Every piece of information in his head is now mine. And you have infinite knowledge, Doctor. The Human Empire is tiny compared to what you've seen in you S. Tardis."

The Doctor rolled his eyes "Well, you'll never get your hands on it. I'll die first."

"Die all you like," the human opposite of him mocked "I don't need you. I've got the key." The Tardis key rose from Adam's pocket, causing the Doctor to curse at Rose. He quieted down when he saw Tyra moving. The girl sat up, looking a bit disorientated. Once the scene in front of her registered, she rolled her eyes and snatched the key out of the air, muttering to herself or to Adam – He wasn't sure which one it was.

The Doctor broke the silence between them "And no one's going to stop you because you've bred a human race that doesn't bother to ask questions. Stupid little slaves, believing every lie. They'll just trot right into the slaughterhouse if they're told it's made of gold." The Jagrafess snarled and the Time Lord could see Cathica leave. Their lives in her hand now. Hopefully, he was wrong about her.

Only minutes after I had snatched the Tardis key out of the air, the stream flowing in or out of Adam's head disconnected and the boy relaxed.

"Are you actually stupid?" I hissed, stalking closer to him. That… child killed me and he didn't even notice. I grabbed his arm in a tight hold and dragged him back to the Tardis.

"Ow," he whined "Let go of me. I didn't do anything…"

I scoffed "Don't even try. I'm sixteen and I know that you fucked up. Better be glad that I'm not in the mood to kill you for knocking me out right now. That hurt…"

"Sorry, Tyra," he apologized flirtily. I grimaced in disgust and shoved him against the side of the Tardis, mentally apologizing to the machine. He's the Doctor's problem now. Speaking of, the Time Lord was storming over to us, a thunderous expression on his face. Adam pushed off the side of the box, grinning sheepishly "I'm alright now. Much better. And Tyra's got the key. Look, it's… It all worked out for the best, didn't it? You know, it's not actually my fault because you were in charge."

I winced when the only thing the Doctor did was to push Adam into the Tardis silently, following him inside. Rose looked at me worriedly and I shrugged. The two of us entered to see the Time Lord punching coordinates into the console while Adam was sitting on the seat just behind him, uncomfortably.

The rotor started and as soon as it did, it stopped again. The whole Tardis was silent and I didn't dare to say anything as the other three walked out.

"It's my house," I heard Adam exclaim outside "I'm home. Oh, my God. I'm home! Blimey. I thought you were going to chuck me out of an airlock."

I leaned against the open doorway, watching the Doctor glare at the human "Is there something else you want to tell me?"

"No," Adam blinked innocently "What do you mean?"

The Time Lord picked up the answering machine "The archives of Satellite Five. One second of that message could've changed the world." He sonicked the poor telephone into submission, making it explode "That's it, then. See you."

"How do you mean, see you?" the boy burst out.

"As in goodbye," the Doctor spelled out.

Adam stepped forward "But what about me? You can't just go. I've got my head. I've got a chip type two. My head opens."

"What?" the Doctor mocked, getting ready to click his fingers "Like this?" I rolled my eyes and went back inside. There's no way I wanted to watch that idiot's head open more than once. It was already disturbing enough… Why would people voluntarily do that? It was weird. Said the vampire… I listened to the conversation going on outside from my place at the console, waiting for the other two to come back inside. While I was waiting, I twirled around Rose's key in my hand… I'd have to give that back. My own Tardis key was safe around my neck and I planned on keeping it that way.

The Doctor came back inside "Now that that's done. Let's get going."

"Oh, Rose," I called out, seeing the blonde about to head to her room "Here." I held out her key "Thought you'd like that back." The girl blinked at me and grabbed it out of my hand, walking off. Rude? "And here I was trying to be nice," I sighed, flopping down behind the Doctor.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked me, turning away from the console "You were unconscious for a bit."

I smiled lightly "I'm fine. Not even a bump," I assured him "Don't worry about me."

"You should still rest a bit before we're off again," he pointed out "And I need to fix some stuff, so… Shoo!"

I raised my hands in surrender, laughing a bit "Fine, fine. I can see when I'm not wanted." With one last cheeky grin, I jogged out of the console room and through the corridors to my room.


	8. Father's Day

"Peter Alan Tyler, my dad. The most wonderful man in the world," Rose murmured, staring at the time rotor "Born 15th September 1954. That's what Mum always says. So I was thinking… Could we… Could we go and see my dad when he was still alive?"

"Where's this come from, all of a sudden?" the Doctor questioned, looking up at the blonde. I was next to him, leaning against the pilot's seat. He could do that? He really could go back and just… No! I couldn't get my hopes up. Henrik was dead and there was nothing I could do.

Rose closed her eyes "Alright then, if we can't, if it goes against the laws of time or something, then never mind, just leave it."

"No, I can do anything," the Doctor shook his head, making my head snap around in shock and longing "I'm just more worried about you."

"I want to see him," Rose demanded.

The Time Lord jumped up "Your wish is my command. But be careful what you wish for." He set the Tardis moving "Here we go. It's the day of your parents' wedding." The blonde smiled and ran for the doors. I stayed exactly where I was though "Aren't you coming?"

I shook my head "No. This is Rose's trip. I'll wait for you here." That and I didn't want to see Rose's father. It would only make this more difficult for me. The Doctor could back and I could see Henrik again but what good would that be? He's dead and he has been for over a thousand years. Even if I see him, he'll still be dead once I get back. I had so many years to come to terms with his death but I never could. Henrik was my twin brother and we had a bond, something the others never really understood. When he died… It honestly felt like a part of me died with him, like my half of my soul was dead. Kol was the one to take care of me after that when everyone else seemed to ignore the fact that I was getting worse and worse. Then, mother did her ritual and everything changed. My emotions were heightened and my depression got worse. It was only thanks to Kol that I survived as long as I did. When Nik daggered me for the first time, a few months after Finn, I felt nothing. For the first time, the pain I felt was gone. Until I woke up again. Time passed and I got more accustomed to living a half-life. The reason I couldn't and wouldn't go back to see Henry was because it would destroy me. The feeling of having my other half ripped away again… I didn't want to experience it. Not again… Never again.

"November the 7th?" the Doctor questioned when he and Rose came back inside the Tardis.

The blonde human nodded "1987." Minutes later, the Tardis parked herself between a telephone junction box and a road sign. This time I got out with the other two. Rose wanted to see her father's death. She wanted to be with him when he died. I knew that if I had the chance, I probably would try to safe Henrik. The temptation would be too great not to, although it would change everything. Mother wouldn't turn us into vampires, Niklaus wouldn't discover his heritage, vampires wouldn't exist on this Earth and our father wouldn't turn into more of a monster than he had already been "It's so weird," Rose marvelled "The day my father died. I thought it would be all sort of grim and stormy. It's just an ordinary day."

"The past is another country," the Doctor pointed out softly "1987 is just the Isle of Wight. Are you sure about this?"

The human nodded "Yeah." We were standing on the pavement, where it was supposed to happen "This is it. Jordan Road. He was late. He'd been to get a wedding present, a vase. Mum always said, that stupid vase…" A green van came around the corner "He got out of the car…" It pulled into the curb "And crossed the road. Oh, God. This is it." As her father got out of the van, the Doctor grabbed Rose's hand. A beige car came around the corner and headed straight for the frozen man. The driver shielded his face with his arm and just kept going, leaving Rose's father and the broken vase in the middle of the road.

"Go to him," the Doctor murmured "Quick."

Rose didn't move, she was just staring at the man before running off. We were just around the corner as sirens approached "It's too late now," she whispered "By the time the ambulance got there, he was dead. He can't die on his own. Can I try again?" I held back from saying anything. This was between Rose and the Doctor… If she thought this was a good idea. I certainly didn't. Maybe it was because I knew what I would do in the girl's position or it was because in my case, the whole world would change.

We walked back, taking the Tardis back around fifteen minutes. Soon, we were looking around the corner, watching our old selves "Right, that's the first us," the Doctor explained "It's a very bad idea, two sets of us being here at the same time. Just be careful they don't see us. Wait till she runs off and we follow, then go to your dad."

"I can't do this," Rose cried, suddenly running forward to her father.

The Doctor had his hand outstretched "Rose! No!"

Rose dashed past our old selves and pushed her father out of the path of the beige car. The vase rolled underneath the car, unbroken, while our earlier versions vanished. A bad feeling spread inside my stomach as I stared at the scene in horror. She didn't honestly do that right now, did she? As the two Tylers kept talking "This is bad, isn't it?" I questioned quietly, wrapping my arms around myself. I felt really uncomfortable about all this. Every single thing that happened here was too much and I wasn't sure how much longer I could take it.

"Yes," the Doctor forced out, glaring at the blonde across the street. We were dragged to the car by Rose and shoved into the backseat without a word.

"Right," Pete spoke up after we entered his flat. The drive had been silent, almost uncomfortably so "Sorry about the mess. If you want a cup of tea, milk's in the fridge. Well, it would be, wouldn't it? Where else would you put the milk? Mind you, there's always the window sill outside. I always thought if someone invented a window sill with special compartments, you know, one for milk, one for yoghurt, make a lot of money out of that. Sell it to students and things. I should write that down. Anyway, never mind that, excuse me for a minute. Got to go and change."

As soon as we were alone, Rose walked around, touching several trinkets with a wistful smile "All the stuff mum kept. His stuff. She kept it all packed away in boxes in the cupboard. She used to show me when she's had a bit to drink. Here it is, on display. Where it should be. Third price at bowling. First, two got to go to Didcot. Health drinks. Tonics, mum used to call them. He made his money selling this Vitex stuff. He had all sorts of jobs. He was so clever. Solar power. Mum said he was going to do this. Now he can. Okay, look I'll tell him you're not my boyfriend."

"When we met," the Doctor started darkly "I said travel with me in space. You said no. The I said time machine."

"It wasn't some big plan," Rose rolled her eyes, sounding amused "I just saw it happening and I thought, I can stop it."

The Time Lord stalked forward "There's a man alive who shouldn't be," he snapped, his rage visible.

The blonde looked at me pleadingly "Tyra…"

"Don't bring me into this," I shook my head. Since Rose saved her father I was so close to breaking down. It was unfair. Why did this spoilt little girl get the privilege to save someone she never even met? My twin brother was dead and you didn't see me begging to see him again. I had so many things, so many regrets, that I'd change if I could. But those mistakes were what shaped me, what made me… Well, me.

The Doctor threw up his hands "I did it again," he sighed "I picked another stupid ape. I should have known. It's not about showing you the universe. It never is. It's about the universe doing something for you."

"That's not fair," Rose cut in "It's okay for you to go to other times and save people's lives but not when it's me saving my dad?"

"I know what I'm doing," the Doctor shouted "You don't. Two sets of us being there made that a vulnerable point."

Rose tilted her head "But he's alive."

"My entire planet died," he pointed out with forced calm in his voice "My whole family. Do you think it never occurred to me to go back and save them?" I shifted a bit and reached out to grab his hand. This wasn't any easier on him then it was on me.

"Would you rather him dead?" the blonde snapped.

The Doctor shook his head in exasperation "I'm not saying that."

"No, I get it," Rose smirked "For once, you're not the most important man in my life."

"Let's see how you get on without me, then," the Time Lord murmured "Give me the key. The Tardis key. If I'm so insignificant, give me it back."

Rose slapped the key into his open hand "Alright then, I will."

"You've got what you wanted," the Doctor declared "So that's goodbye then."

"You don't scare me," the human pointed out "I know how sad you are. You'll be back in a minute or you'll hang around outside the Tardis waiting for me. And I'll make you wait a long time."

The Doctor turned around, my hand still clutched in his "You forget that you're not the only person travelling with me." I glanced over my shoulder in disgust. I might have manipulated my fair share of people but what Rose just said was definitely too much… You didn't use something like that against people you know and care about. That's just too much. When we were outside, the Doctor looked down at me "Are you alright?"

I smiled or grimaced more like it "I should be asking you that. I'm sorry about what she said."

"Don't be," he shook his head "Rose was out of line. Come on." The Time Lord pulled me along, back to where the Tardis was. Once we reached her, he unlocked the doors and opened them, only to reveal an empty police box. The complete interior was missing. Oh, that couldn't be good "Rose!" he exclaimed, running off.

"Oh, this so isn't good," I breathed, easily keeping up with the Doctor.

The two of us rushed to the church as fast as the Doctor could. Once we reached the ground, the Doctor started shouting at the blonde "Rose! Get in the church!" Rose turned, a smug smile on her face "Get in the church." A large thing with bat-like wings appeared in the sky, hissing and swooping. Rose screamed and the Doctor pushed her down just in time to avoid its talons. Two more creatures appeared, randomly trying to pounce on people.

"Oh, my God," a woman breathed "What are they?"

"Inside," the Doctor commanded, pushing several people in the direction of the doors.

A man – the groom, judging by the outfit – looked around frantically "Sarah!"

"Stay in there!" the Doctor told him. An older man tried to run away but he got pounced on, while another blocked the bride's path. She screamed and I came up behind her, grasping her hand. The creature flew off and pounced on the vicar instead, so I pulled her along and into the church.

As soon as everyone was in, the Doctor slammed the doors on the creatures "They can't get in. Old windows and doors. Okay. The older something is, the stronger it is. What else?" He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment "Go and check the other doors! Move!"

"What's happening?" Jackie shrieked "What are they?"

"There's been an accident in time," the Time Lord waved off "A wound in time. They're like bacteria, taking advantage."

Jackie frowned "What do you mean, time? What're you jabbering on about, time?"

I turned my attention from the Doctor to the couple, sitting huddled together on one of the benches "Are you alright?"

"Yes, thanks to you," the bride smiled shakily "What are those things?"

I shrugged "Sorry, I have no idea… But if anyone can help it's the Doctor. I promise you that this will turn out alright in the end."

"My dad was out there," the groom murmured.

"You can mourn him later," the Doctor said "Right now we've got to concentrate on keeping ourselves alive."

The groom continued "My dad had…"

"There's nothing I can do for him," the Time Lord cut him off.

I cuffed him lightly "Doctor, listen to him."

"No, but he had this phone thing. I can't get it to work," the groom gestured "I keep getting this voice."

" _Watson, come here. I need you. Watson, come here. I need you."_

I blinked "Isn't that Alexander Graham Bell?"

"It is," the Doctor sighed "I don't think the telephone's going to be much use."

Rose came up behind us "Is this because? Is this my fault?"

I didn't want to be near the blonde for the moment and looked around to find something else to do. Eventually, I settled on Jackie and the baby she was looking over. I stepped closer nervously. The only babies I'd been close to were to newborns and children of the Coven and those children tended to adore both me and Kol. Jackie looked up at me "Can you do me a favour and look after Rose for a moment? I need to check on Mickey."

"Sure," I nodded, looking after the woman when she left. I glanced down at the baby and carefully lifted her from the carrier "Hello there, Rose," I whispered, tickling the girl's stomach "You're a cute little one, aren't you?"

"I seem to be asking this a lot today but are you alright?" the Doctor's voice came from behind me "You're even more quiet than normal."

I smiled sadly "I'm fine," I told him "I just… This whole thing is bringing up memories I'd rather not relieve."

"It'll be okay," the Time Lord assured me "We'll get this over with somehow…" He then turned to the baby cooing in my arms "Now, Rose you're not going to bring about the end of the world, are you? Are you?"

Rose walked up to us "I'd better be careful. I think I just imprinted myself on Mickey like a mother chicken." She reached out to touch the baby.

"No," the Doctor snapped "Don't touch the baby. You're both the same person. That's a paradox and we don't want a paradox happening, not with these things outside. Anything new, any disturbance in time makes them stronger. The paradox might let them in."

The blonde sighed in defeat "I can't do anything right, can I?"

"Since you asked, no. So, don't touch the baby."

"I'm not stupid," Rose cried out.

The Doctor scoffed "Could have fooled me." I groaned at both of them fighting and bounced baby Rose a bit because she looked about ready to burst into tears "Alright, I'm sorry. I wasn't really going to leave you on your own."

"I know."

"But between us, I haven't got a plan," the Doctor admitted "No idea. No way out. The entire Earth's been sterilized. This, and other places like it, are all that's left of the human race. We might hold out for a while, but nothing can stop those creatures. They'll get through in the end. The walls aren't that old. And there's nothing I can do to stop them. There used to be laws stopping this kind of thing from happening. My people would have stopped this. But they're all gone. And now I'm going the same way." He walked off, sitting down on one of the benches, his head in his hands.

The blonde sighed and joined him, a pained expression on her face "If I'd realized…"

"Just tell me you're sorry," the Doctor murmured.

"I am," Rose nodded "I'm sorry." They hugged and the human pulled back suddenly "Have you got something hot?" At the same time as she said that, I hissed in pain, the key around my neck burning into my skin. Rose reached into his inside pocket, took out a key and dropped it because it was glowing hot. I gritted my teeth, putting the baby back into her carrier. Once baby Rose was safe, I ripped the chain from my neck and dropped it onto the bench.

The Doctor gaped down at the silver object "It's the Tardis key!" He took off his jacket and picked it put "It's telling me it's still connected to the Tardis." The Time Lord made an announcement from the pulpit "The inside of my ship was thrown out of the wound but we can use this to bring it back. And once I've got my ship back, then I can mend everything. Now, I just need a bit of power. Has anyone got a battery?"

Stuart, the groom picked up the mobile phone "This one big enough?"

"Fantastic," the Doctor grinned, accepting the phone "Just need to do a bit of charging up and then we can bring everyone back." He sonicked the battery while the creatures continued to batter at the doors. I was standing close to the Doctor, watching as the Tardis slowly materialized around her key "Right, no one touches that key. Have you got that? Don't touch it. Anyone touches that key, it'll be, well, zap. Just leave it be and everything will be fine. We'll get out of here. All of us. Stuart, Sarah you're going to get married, just like I said."

"When time gets sorted out…" Rose trailed off.

The Doctor rubbed a hand over his short hair "Everybody here forgets what happened. And don't worry, the thing that you changed will stay changed."

Pete cleared his throat "You mean I'll still be alive, though I'm meant to be dead. That's why I haven't done anything with my life, why I didn't mean anything."

"It doesn't work like that," the Time Lord shook his head.

"Rubbish," Rose's father shook his head "I'm so useless I couldn't even die properly. Now it's my fault all of this has happened."

Rose shook her head "This is my fault."

"No, love," the man smiled gently "I'm your dad. It's my job for it to be my fault." I bit my lip from the side. Sometimes I wished that my father could have been like that. Understanding, gentle… But it was a different time back then and Mikael was… not like that.

Jackie's face was contorted "Her dad? Hoe are you her dad? How old were you, twelve? Oh, that's disgusting."

"Jacks, listen," Pete murmured "This is Rose."

That was the wrong thing to say. The other woman's face turned red "Rose? How sick is that? You give my daughter a second-hand name? How many are there? Do you call them all Rose?"

"Oh, for God's sake, look. It's the same Rose." The man grabbed the baby out of Jackie's arms and handed her to Rose.

The Doctor startled into motion "Rose! No!" He snatched the little one away too late and gave her back to Jackie. One of the creatures appeared inside the church, screeching at all of us "Everyone behind me. I'm the oldest thing in the room."

No, you're not. I moved a bit faster than the average human and got between the Time Lord and the creature just in time.

_The next thing I knew was blackness and then that blackness brightened, turning into the familiar area of my home._

" _You aren't supposed to be here, Ty," a familiar voice made me gasp, tears filling my eyes._

" _Henry," I breathed and threw myself into my twin's waiting arms "Missed you."_

_Henrik tightened his arms around my small frame "I know, sissy. But you can't go on like this. Please, try and live? For me?"_

_I sniffled, trying desperately to hold back the emotions that were threatening to swallow me "I don't want to live, Henry. I want to stay here with you."_

_My brother sighed sadly "You can't. I'm sorry, Ty but you have to go back. The Doctor needs you and you need him."_

" _No," I shouted, feeling some invisible force grab me "Please, Henry. I don't want to lose you. Please let me stay."_

" _I'm sorry." The world blurred around me and soon I was back in the church._

"No," I whispered, tears falling freely by now "Henry." I sank to my knees, burying my face in my hands, my shoulders shaking.

A hand touched my shoulder gently and the Doctor crouched down next to my crumpled figure "Tyra. What's wrong?"

"N – Nothing," I replied, trying desperately to pull my masks back up "I'm alright. Is it done?"

"Don't do that," the Time Lord admonished "Don't hide from me. Please?"

From the door of the church, I could hear a low, angry hiss. A quick glance showed Rose glaring at me angrily, muttering to herself "I just lost my father. He should be comforting me."

I looked up at the Doctor "You should talk to Rose. She needs you right now."

"What about you?"

"I need to be alone for a moment," I whispered, watching my hands shaking violently. The Doctor sighed and got up to join Rose outside.

Not even a minute later, I heard rustling behind me and Sarah knelt down next to me "Who's Henry?"

I wrapped my arms around myself and shrugged "It doesn't matter… What matters is that everyone is alright and this situation is over. Excuse me." I jumped up and pushed past several people to get outside. The Doctor and Rose were talking a bit off to the side but I just walked on, back to the Tardis. I really needed to be alone… Henry had been so close and I just had to leave again… Why? I would have stayed with him. It's not like anyone would miss me. In my room, I fell onto the bed and buried my face in the pillow, half trying to suffocate myself.

A knock on the door made me groan "Come in," I called reluctantly, curling into a ball under the covers.

"Tyra," the Doctor started, closing the door behind him "Can we talk?"

I shrugged, trying to swipe at my eyes without him noticing "If you want to," I murmured quietly.

He came closer and I move to the side a little, giving him space to sit on the bed next to me "What happened? After the Reaper…"

"Nothing," I whispered, forcing Henrik's face out of my mind. He would be so disappointed in me now. My twin brother always was open to everyone, even the people he just met. I haven't let anyone in for such a long time.

"Please, Tyra," the Doctor pleaded "I want to help you. If you're hurt…"

I whirled to face him "You can't help me, okay? No one can. Not you, not my brothers and certainly not your stupid ship." The Time Lord reared back in surprise at my outburst but as quickly as it came, I sunk down "Sorry," I muttered "I didn't mean that."

"It's alright," he smiled "What was so different today? Why were you so quiet?"

"Rose isn't the only one who lost someone," I told him quietly, picking at a loose thread "My twin brother died a long time ago…"

The Doctor reached out to take my hand in his "How old were you?"

I looked up at him "It's a bit complicated. Can I tell you something? You have to promise not to hate me though…"

"Why would I hate you?" the Doctor tilted his head.

"Because I'm a monster?" I phrased it like a question but it wasn't.

The Time Lord tilted my head up, eyes shining with concern "Why would you think that?" Instead of answering, I took a deep breath and let my vampire face come forward. Black veins crawled under my eyes and fangs grew in my mouth "You're a vampire?"

"I'm one of The vampires," I corrected, mentally preparing myself to be thrown out of the Tardis "I'm the youngest of the Original vampires."

"Why are you telling me now?" he questioned, sounding interested. I couldn't tell if he was mad or not…

I shrugged "You told us about yourself when we first started travelling with you… I just… It seemed like it was time to tell you. I'm sorry that I kept it for so long but I was scared… am scared. People don't usually treat me the same once they find out."

"I don't care about you being a vampire. There's just one question I have to ask you," the Doctor stated seriously "Do you kill humans?"

"No," I shook my head "Well, not recently. I have killed and a lot. It's not a justification but… I couldn't deal with Henrik's death. He was everything… the other half of my soul and then he was just gone and mother turned us into monsters… We feel emotions so much deeper than the average human and it hurt, Doctor. It hurt so much." Tears were falling down my face again "I wish I could take back what I did but I can't. The past shaped me into who I am now."

The Time Lord looked at me for a moment before he pulled me into his arms "It's alright, Tyra. You're with me now and you have a home with the Tardis and me for as long as you want to… By the way, how old does that make you?"

I blinked up at him through wet eyes and my eyes lit up mischievously "I'm over a thousand years old now. Give or take a few years."

"You're…" he broke off, opening and closing his mouth a few times "Huh. That makes you older than me."

"Sorry," I grinned, leaning against his chest to listen to his two hearts beating. The sound was soothing in a weird way and I could feel myself drifting off after the excitement of today. Before I was completely gone through, I leaned up and pressed a thankful kiss to the Doctor's cheek "Thank you. It's been a long time since I had a home. I'd love to stay for as long as you'll have me."


	9. The Empty Child

When I woke up the next morning, the Doctor was gone. Not that I minded… Our conversation from yesterday was replaying in my head and it made me smile. I had a home again. The Tardis. The most amazing home in the whole universe. A happy hum filtered into my mind and I grinned. You're welcome, girl.

"What's the emergency?" Rose's voice reached my ears from the console room.

I raised an eyebrow and flashed closer to the room the other two inhabitants were in. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder "It's mauve."

"Mauve?" I frowned jumping down the stairs. The Tardis was shaking like crazy but I didn't mind it much at all. Sometimes it was worse being on a ship and I had been on way too many of those in my life.

"The universally recognised colour for danger," the Doctor sighed.

Rose blinked in confusion "What happened to red?"

The Doctor ran around the console "That's just humans." He stopped at the scanner "By everyone else's standards red is camp. Oh, the misunderstandings. All those red alerts, all that dancing." The Time Lord read the symbols on the display "It's got a very basic flight computer. I've hacked in, slaved the Tardis. Where it goes, we go."

"And that's safe, is it?" the blonde human questioned, crossing her arms.

"Totally," the Doctor nodded happily, correcting himself when the console exploded in front of him "Okay, reasonably. Should have said reasonably there. No, no, no, no. It's jumping time tracks, getting away from us."

I stepped over to him and glanced over his shoulder at the thing that we were following "What is that?"

"No idea," he shrugged, urging the Tardis to go faster.

"Then why are we chasing it?" Rose questioned.

"It's mauve," the Time Lord explained "And dangerous. And about thirty seconds from the city centre of London."

I tilted my head "That's bad, right?"

"Very bad," the Doctor nodded his head, walking past me out of the Tardis' door "Do you know how long you can knock around space without happening to bump into Earth?"

Rose grinned and attached herself to the Doctor's arm "Five day? Or is that just when we're out of milk?"

The Time Lord groaned "Out of all the species in all the Universe and it has to come out of a cow," he complained.

"You do know that there's different kinds of milk, right? I think I saw something similar on some kind of planet we've been too recently," "I told him.

He rolled his eyes and glanced around the back alley we were in. Speaking of which. It kind of looked like the 1930s or the 1940s. Not my favourite decade but hey. Better than the 60s for sure "Must have come down somewhere quite close. Within a mile, anyway. And it can't have been more than a few weeks ago. Maybe a month."

"A month?" the blonde exclaimed "We were right behind it."

"It was jumping time tracks," the Doctor explained patiently, still looking around "We're bound to be a little bit out. Do you want to drive?"

Rose nodded "Yeah. How much is a little?"

"A bit."

"Is that exactly a bit?"

The Doctor grimaced "Ish."

The human rolled her eyes at the man "What's the plan, then? Are you going to do a scan for alien tech or something?"

"Rose, it hit the middle of London with a loud bang. I'm going to ask." He showed us his psychic paper ID. I squinted at it, trying to see what it was supposed to show, before giving up with an annoyed groan.

"Doctor John Smith," Rose read out loud "Ministry of Asteroids."

The Doctor looked down "It's psychic paper. It tells you…"

"Whatever you want it to tell me, I remember," Rose finished the sentence for him.

"Sorry. Door, music, people," the Doctor pointed to a door "What do you think?"

I gaped "Who are you and what have you done with the Doctor? You're doing the domestic approach?"

"Shush, Tyra," the Doctor hushed me with a small grin.

"I think you should do a scan for alien tech," Rose pointed out "Give me some Spock for once. Would it kill you?"

The Doctor opened the door with his sonic and looked back at us, specifically at Rose's Union Flag top and my short white dress "Are you sure about that t-shirt? Or the dress?"

Rose glanced down "Too early to say," she shrugged "I'm taking it out for a spin."

"Trust me, Doctor. People have stared at me for wearing pants… This dress is nothing," I smirked at him.

 _"Mummy? Mummy?"_ a child's voice called out from somewhere nearby. I stopped following the Doctor and looked up in confusion. Why would there be a child on the roof?

"Come on if you're coming," the Doctor called to us "It won't take a minute."

The blonde human looked at me when the voice sounded again "Did you hear that?"

"Yeah," I nodded, still glancing around the rooftops until my gaze landed on a small figure "It's a kid…"

"Doctor," Rose shouted after the Time Lord "Doctor? There's a kid up there." The Doctor didn't hear her or ignored the blonde, so she ran over to the building the kid was on "Are you alright up there?" She started climbing up.

I was still standing close to the Tardis, not feeling up to trying to help a creepy kid on a building. Something was wrong. This wasn't a normal kid… He didn't have a heartbeat for one. Rose got to the flat roof just beneath the child. The human grabbed a rope that was dangling down in front of her and I couldn't stop my lips from twitching. Why she thought it was a good idea, I didn't know but maybe she didn't see the barrage balloon that was attached to it "Rose," I called up, not sure whether she could hear me or not "Let go of that rope…"

"Doctor!" Rose screamed when the barrage balloon started drifting away from the building "Doctor!"

"Hold on!" I shouted up to her, screaming as loud as I could "I'll tell him, okay? Just try to hold on."

As soon as she was out of sight, the Doctor exited the nightclub "Rose? Tyra?"

"I'm here, Doctor," I told him, looking up at the sky "Rose is… erm, yeah. There might have been a creepy child and a barrage balloon involved."

"What?" the Time Lord blinked "What do you mean?"

I ran a hand through my hair "Well, there was a child on the roof over there and Rose wanted to help it. She grabbed a rope to climb up the last part and well… Let's just say that she's dangling somewhere over London now."

"Okay," he mumbled, blinking a few times "She gives a whole new meaning to being jeopardy-friendly." When he made his way toward the Tardis, presumably to safe Rose, the phone started ringing "How can you be ringing?" the Doctor frowned "What's that about, ringing? What am I supposed to do with a ringing phone?"

"Answer it?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.

A girl appeared near where I was standing. If I hadn't heard her coming, I would have jumped "Don't answer it. It's not for you."

"And how do you know that?" the Doctor asked the girl.

She rolled her eyes "Cause I do. And I'm telling you, don't answer it."

"Well, if you know so much, tell me this," the Doctor crossed his arms "How can it be ringing?" While he was ranting, the girl walked back into the shadows and disappeared "It's not even a real phone. It's not connected, it's not…"

"She's gone, Doctor," I told him with an amused smile.

He shrugged and picked up the phone "Hello? Hello? This is the Doctor speaking. How may I help you? Who is this? Who's speaking? Who is this? How did you ring here? This isn't a real phone. It's not wired up to anything." He hung up and looked around, seemingly forgotten that Rose was still dangling around somewhere. There was a noise around the corner and the Doctor took off, grasping my hand to pull me along "Come on, we're going to look for this mysterious girl."

The Doctor and I walked through the streets of London, trying to find the girl who warned us.

"Well, well, well. Who do we have here?" a familiar voice sounded from behind us.

I cursed under my breath and whirled around along with the Doctor "Who are you?" the Time Lord frowned.

Niklaus waved the other man off, his focus on me "Did you think I wouldn't find you, love?" He glanced at my clothes in shock and a bit of disbelief "What the hell are you wearing? You run away from us now you dress like a prostitute?"

"Sorry?" I frowned, calling upon all of the acting skills I had "I'm afraid I don't…"

"Don't give me that," Nik snapped, stalking close to me to grab my arm "You're coming with me."

I took a few steps back and shook my head "No thanks. I don't feel like having another dagger in my heart."

"What's going on here?" the Doctor frowned in confusion, looking from my brother to me "Tyra? Who is this and how do you know him?"

"Oh, she didn't tell you?" Nik wondered, a gleeful expression on his gaze. Asshole!

I glared at him "Why don't you fuck off? I have nothing to say to you. If this is about what happened in New Orleans... That wasn't my fault and you know it."

"New...?" Nik blinked in confusion "What are you going on about? What was that with Elijah in the 20s, huh? Who was that man you were with?"

My head turned to the side "What are you talking about?" I gave back, warily.

The Doctor threw his hands up "What are both of you talking about." The Time Lord froze for a moment "Hold on… Is he one of your –?" He grabbed my hand "Come on. We have a girl to find... Well, more than one girl. Well, two girls and a spaceship." We started walking away from my brother.

"Spaceship? Wait a minute," Nik called out "We aren't done here. Don't you want to be… reunited with Kol? Hm?"

I froze for a second, whirled around and stalked back towards the Hybrid "You destroyed our lives, Nik. Why can't you just leave me to be happy for once in your miserable existence? I finally found a way for me to not hate what mother and father did to us."

The expression on his face softened "I didn't know you felt that way."

"I always did," I admitted quietly, wrapping my arms around my stomach "Finn might have been the most vocal about wanting to die but I… Travelling with Kol. It helped me a lot… When you daggered us, I lost part of that again. I'm not telling you to make you feel bad or anything. I just hope that you understand. Henrik died and I know that you're still thinking about him… So am I. You lost a younger brother and I lost my twin…" I paused for a moment and glanced back at the Doctor who was staring at us, a confused expression on his face "I died recently… Temporarily. I saw Henrik, talked to him. You have no idea how badly I just wanted to stay there." A sad smile crossed my face "He didn't let me though. Still the same stubborn idiot… He doesn't blame any of us, you know?"

Nik had tears in his eyes now and without another word, he pulled me into a tight hug "I'm sorry, little sister. You're happy?"

"As happy as I can be," I nodded, breathing in my older brother's scent. While I had always been closer to Kol, Finn and Nik had been close seconds. After we turned, it changed. Finn desperately wanted to kill himself and Nik turned into… Well, he turned into Klaus.

Suddenly, a voice sounded through the night "Niklaus." Elijah. That was Elijah's voice… I panicked and pulled out of the embrace.

"Go," Nik urged, shooing me away. I leaned up to press a small kiss to his cheek before I ran back to the Doctor, pulling the Time Lord along by his arm. Behind me, I could still hear some of the conversation "What is it, brother?"

"Where did you go? We…" Their talking got quieter until I couldn't hear it anymore. I slowed down to a walk and let go of the Doctor's arm.

The alien stopped and turned to me with a raised eyebrow "What was that about?"

"I –" I stopped for a moment and tugged at my hair in frustration "That was Nik… I – There's a lot I still have to tell you…"

"I'd say," he smiled, wrapping an arm around my shoulder "I'll tell you, you tell me?"

I looked up at him and smiled "Deal."

"Let's find our missing girls then… Do you have any idea where to look?" he questioned, freezing in a comical pose.

I glanced around and tilted my head in thought "How about that way?" I questioned when I saw several children head towards a house. They didn't look as if they belonged there… anywhere in fact "I can imagine the girl from earlier trying to help others, can't you?"

"Perfect," the Doctor exclaimed "You're amazing."

"Don't you forget it," I laughed. We walked through the backdoor quietly, inching into the house where we heard a bunch of children talking.

"It's got to be black market," a boy wondered "You couldn't get all this on coupons."

"Ernie," the girl from before scolded "How many times? We are guests in this house. We will not make comments of that kind. Washing up."

Ernie whined "Oh, Nancy."

We snuck into the room and sat at the end of the table. Nancy looked at one of the younger boys close to her "Haven't seen you at one of these before."

"He told me about it," the boy smiled shyly. I gripped the Doctor's hand lightly… It was hard sometimes. Growing up in the 10th century. Whenever the winters were hard, we barely had anything to eat and it wasn't uncommon for Mikael to refuse us food. He didn't like the fact that Kol, Finn and I were learning from our mother and Ayana. He always insisted that the men should provide for the family. Take care of the house, the animals, hunt.

"Sleeping rough?" Nancy smiled?

The boy nodded "Yes, miss."

She sighed sadly and finished carving the meat "Alright, then. One slice each and I want to see everyone chewing properly." The girl handed around the platter.

"Thank you, miss."

"Thanks, miss."

"Thank you, miss."

When the platter reached the Doctor he took it from one of the boys and took two slices "Thanks, miss," he grinned cheerfully.

The children started to panic and I hit the Time Lord in the back of the head "You're an idiot," I hissed.

"It's alright," Nancy calmed them down "Everybody stay where you are. Back in your seats. They shouldn't be here either."

"So," the Doctor questioned, looking at the small faces around us "You lot, what's your story?"

Ernie glared up at the man "What do you mean?"

"You're homeless, right? Living rough?" he questioned.

"Why do you want to know that?" another boy spoke up suspiciously "Are you coppers?"

I raised an eyebrow "Do I look old enough to be a cop?" I stopped and stared at them in slight horror "Please don't tell me I'm starting to have wrinkles. I'm too young."

The children giggled at my fake-horror and the Doctor grinned as well "Of course we're not coppers. What's a copper going to do with you lot anyway? Arrest you for starving? 1941… You lot shouldn't even be in London. You should've been evacuated to the country by now."

"I was evacuated," a boy called out "Sent me to a farm…"

The Doctor tilted his head "Why did you come back?"

The boy hesitated for a moment "There was a man there."

"Yeah, same with Ernie. Two homes ago," someone called out.

Ernie glared at the speaker "Shut up. It's better on the streets anyway. It's better food."

"Yeah. Nancy always gets the best food for us," the same boy as before grinned.

"So, that's what you do, is it, Nancy?" the Doctor inquired.

She squinted at us "What is?"

"As soon as the sirens go, you find a big fat family meal still warm on the table with everyone down in the air raids shelter and bingo! Feeding frenzy for the homeless kids of London Town. Puddings for all, as long as the bombs don't get you."

Nancy raised an eyebrow "Something wrong with that?"

"It's awesome," I cut in "You have to survive and you're not doing anything worse than these people are doing to each other."

"I'm not sure if it's Marxism in action or a West End musical," the Doctor agreed.

"Why did you follow me? What do you want?" Nancy questioned, smiling a bit.

The Time Lord turned serious "I want to know how a phone that isn't a phone gets a phone call. You seem to be the one to ask."

"I did you a favour," Nancy pointed out "I told you not to answer it, that's all I'm telling you."

The Doctor nodded in defeat "Okay, thanks. And I want to find a blonde in a Union Jack. I mean a specific one. I didn't just wake up this morning with a craving. Anybody seen a girl like that?"

"I told you she was hanging from a barrage balloon last time I saw her," I told the Doctor, making the children stare at me with wide eyes "You don't want to know… Trust me. Although the sight was somewhat hilarious. Except for, you know, the part where she's hanging from a balloon a hundred feet above London in a Union Jack shirt… Wow. Not even I could manage something like that." The last part was muttered so quietly that no one except for the Doctor heard.

Nancy walked over to us and grabbed the Doctor's plate, making the kids giggle "What have I done wrong?" he complained with a pout.

"You took two slices," the girl grinned "No blondes, no flags and no balloons. Anything else before you leave?"

"Yeah, there is actually," the Doctor nodded, pulling out the sketch he made from the thing we were following "Thanks for asking. Something I've been looking for. Would've fallen from the sky about a month ago, but not a bomb. Not the usual kind, anyway. Wouldn't have exploded. Probably would have just buried itself in the ground somewhere and it would have looked something like this." He showed them the rough sketch.

A sudden knock at the door startled everyone _"Mummy? Are you in there, mummy?"_ the same child as the roof questioned. The Doctor glanced out of the window and got up _"Mummy?"_

"Who was the last one in?" Nancy demanded hurriedly.

"Them," Ernie pointed to us.

The girl shook her head "No, they came round the back. Who came in the front?"

"Me."

"Did you close the door?" Nancy whispered.

The boy blinked "Er…"

"Did you close the door?" she repeated louder and ran to the door without waiting for an answer. The Doctor and I quickly followed her along with the children who were done eating.

"What's this then?" the Doctor frowned when Nancy bolted the front door "It's never easy being the only child left out in the cold, you know."

"I suppose you'd know," the girl bit back.

I bit my lip at the Doctor's sad look "I do actually, yes."

"It's not exactly a child," Nancy sighed, trying her best to explain without explaining.

 _"Mummy?"_ the wrong child questioned. I tilted my head again, trying to listen to the heartbeat outside of the door. There was nothing… Literally nothing. How?

"Right, then," Nancy clapped her hands, shooing the others out "Everybody out. Across the back garden and under the fence. Now! Go! Move!" The children grabbed their coats and ran out.

I looked down when a small girl - no older than four - tugged at my hand lightly. I crouched down in front of her and bobbed her on the nose "Hello, there."

Nancy grabbed the girl's hand and pulled her away from me "Come on, baby, we've got to go, alright? It's just like a game. Just like chasing. Take your coat, go on. Go!"

I stood up and turned around to see a little hand through the letter box. When the Doctor walked closer, I grabbed his arm "Don't," I mumbled "There's something wrong with that child. Doctor, it doesn't have a heartbeat."

"What do you mean?" Nancy question "How do you know?"

I shook my head, pleading with the Doctor silently "Fine," he sighed and turned around to follow a bit behind Nancy "But I still want to know where that bomb is. You can't tell me that she doesn't know."

"I won't," I rolled my eyes and let myself be dragged down the street and after the girl from earlier.

"How did you follow me here?" Nancy demanded to know once she spotted us.

The Doctor shrugged "I'm good at following, me. Got the nose for it." I quirked a small grin… He was setting himself up for that. He really was.

"People can't usually follow me if I don't want them to," she told us.

"My nose has special powers," the Doctor told her.

I burst into giggles as Nancy smirked "Yeah? That's why it's…"

My laughter got a bit louder and the Time Lord looked down at me in confusion "What?"

"Nothing," Nancy shook her head, answering for me.

"What?" he asked again.

The girl shook her head and exchanged an amused look with me "Nothing. Do your ears have special powers too?"

The Doctor narrowed his eyes "What are you trying to say?"

"Goodnight, mister," Nancy told him, while I was slowly trying to calm down.

"Nancy, there's something chasing you and the other kids. Looks like a boy and it isn't a boy and it started about a month ago, right?" the Time Lord stopped her "The thing I'm looking for, the thing that fell from the sky, that's when it landed. And you know what I'm talking about, don't you?"

She hesitated "There was a bomb," she admitted reluctantly "A bomb that wasn't a bomb. Fell the other end of Limehouse Green Station."

"Take us there," the Doctor said.

I poked him "I know where it is. I've been there before. With my brother."

"There's soldiers guarding it," Nancy pointed out "Barbed wire. You'll never get through. Alright, I see that you won't stop… There's someone you need to talk to."

"And who might that be?" the Doctor raised an eyebrow.

Nancy glanced around herself "The Doctor." My head snapped to the Doctor and mouthed a confused 'What?' He just shrugged and thanked the girl.

"Nancy," the Doctor called when the girl was about to walk away "The way you look after those kids. It's because you lost somebody, isn't it? You're doing all this to make up for it."

She looked down sadly, making me want to reach out. I knew that look. I saw it every time I looked into the mirror after Henrik died "My little brother. Jamie. One night I went out looking for food. Same night that thing fell. I told him not to follow me, I told him it was dangerous, but he just… He just didn't like being on his own."

"He was hit?" I asked softly, looking at her with understanding. I think she would have been angry if it had been sympathy… I certainly hated sympathy… I still do actually.

"What do you think?"

The Doctor shook his head lightly "Amazing."

"What is?" Nancy questioned curiously, like she couldn't stop the words from coming out of his mouth.

"1941," the Doctor explained "Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it. Nothing. Until one, tiny, damp little island says no. No. Not here. A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. Don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. Off you go then do what you've got to do… Save the world." He grabbed my hand again, tugging at me to follow him. Not that I minded… It felt nice… It wasn't anymore than being friends but it didn't even matter. I wasn't the person who fell for anyone. And in any case. I was better off just being friends with people. If they didn't run once they find out about what I was, then they would die pretty soon after... No, that wouldn't happen again.

"So," the Doctor spoke up after he checked out the area around the Limehouse Green "Where would you look if you looked for 'the Doctor'?"

I pointed to Albion Hospital that was to the side "We could try that?"

"Smartass," the Time Lord grumbled but made to walk the short way to the hospital. He used his sonic to open the padlock on the ornate metal gate to the hospital grounds. Inside, there was a long. dark ward with every bed occupied by very still patients. Each and everyone was wearing a gasmask "Can you hear their heartbeats?"

"No," I swallowed heavily. There are only four hearts beating in this whole hospital… Mine, your two and that guy's." I pointed to the elderly man who appeared, leaning on a walking stick.

"You'll find them everywhere. In every bed, in every ward. Hundreds of them."

The Doctor nodded "Yes, I saw. Why are they still wearing gasmasks?"

"They're not. Who are you two?"

"I'm, er…" the Time Lord stuttered, breaking off "Are you the Doctor?"

"Doctor Constantine," he introduced himself "And you are?"

The Doctor shook his head "Nancy sent us."

"Nancy?" he raised his eyebrows "That means you must've been asking about the bomb."

"Yes."

Doctor Constantine hummed "What do you know about it?"

"Nothing," the Time Lord shrugged "Why I was asking. What do you know?"

Constantine sighed tiredly "Only what it's done."

"These people," the Doctor murmured "They were all caught up in the blast?"

"None of them were," Constantine chuckled then coughed harshly. He fell back into the chair by the desk where normally the ward sister would be.

I tilted my head, listening to his erratic heartbeat "You're very sick."

"Dying, I should think," he smiled wryly "I just haven't been able to find the time. Are you a doctor?"

"I have my moments," the Doctor muttered, studying one of the patients attentively.

Constantine noticed his distraction "Have you examined any of them yet?"

"No."

"Don't touch the flesh," the old man warned.

The Doctor looked over his shoulder, his sonic screwdriver at the ready "Which one?"

"Any one." The Doctor pointed his sonic at the nearest patient and scanned him "Conclusion?"

The Time Lord took a deep breath "Massive head trauma, mostly to the left side. Partial collapse of the chest cavity, mostly to the right. There's some scarring on the back of the hand and the gas mask seems to be fused to the flesh but I can't see any burns."

"Examine another," Constantine called out, looking at the scar on the back of his hand. I took a small step back and looked around nervously. There was something not right. I didn't like it in here. It was too quiet for a hospital…

"This isn't possible," the Doctor breathed "They've all got the same injuries. How did this happen? How did it start?"

Constantine stretched lightly "When that bomb dropped, there was just one victim."

"Dead?"

"At first…"

I gasped "Doctor. That child. The little boy… Nancy's little brother… I think he was the victim."

"You're good," the old man smiled at me "His injuries were truly dreadful. By the following morning, every doctor and every nurse who had treated him, who had touched him, had those same injuries. By the morning after that, every patient in the same ward, the exact same injuries. Within a week, the entire hospital. Physical injuries as plague. Can you explain that? What would you say was the cause of death?"

"The head trauma."

"No."

"Asphyxiation."

"No."

"The collapse of the chest cavity."

"No."

"Alright," the Doctor muttered in annoyance and surprise "What was the cause of death?"

Constantine smile enigmatically "There wasn't one. They're not dead." He hit a waste basket with his stick and the noise made the patients sit up in their beds.

"What?" I blinked, tilting my head "How? They don't have a heartbeat. How can they be alive?"

"I don't know," the man shrugged "But it's alright. They're harmless. They just sort of sit there. No heartbeat, like she said, no life signs of any kind. They just don't die."

"And they've just been left there," the Doctor glowered angrily "Nobody's doing anything?" The patients lie down again.

Constantine closed his eyes for a moment, slumping back on his chair "I try and make them comfortable. What else is there?"

I whirled around where I stood closer to the door than I had been before "Doctor… I'll be right back, alright? I heard something."

"Be careful, Tyra."

"I always am," I grinned and hurried down the hallways and to the door where I heard Rose along with a man. I leaned against the wall with a small smirk, waiting for them to come closer "So you survived the barrage balloon… Congrats."

Rose stormed over to me and slapped me loudly "You could have told him. He would have saved me."

My eyes lit up with anger but I held myself back "I did tell him, actually. But he got distracted and wandered off. Like he always does… Come on, it's this way." I looked at the man next to Rose and rolled my eyes. Another pretty boy… Hopefully this one was better than Adam.

"Captain Jack Harkness," the man introduced himself with a small bow "And who are you?"

I snorted, shaking my head "Dream on, pretty boy."

"Tyra?" the Doctor's voice called from the ward he was still in.

I lead the two humans to him and slipped past him into the room, seeing Doctor Constantine slumped in the chair he sat in, a gasmask on his face. Ouch… That looked painful.

"Good evening," Captain Harkness greeted the Doctor "Hope we're not intruding. Jack Harkness. I've been hearing all about you on the way over."

"He knows," Rose sighed in fake apology "I had to tell him about us being Time Agents." Time Agents? I shrugged my shoulders and walked around the room, curiously looking at all the patients. I had seen a few of them earlier but I hadn't been close enough to see the injuries up close.

"And it's a real pleasure to meet you, Mister Spock," Harkness grinned, coming into the ward "So, you never did tell me your name."

I looked at him for a moment before I sighed "Tyra Mikaelson."

"Nice to meet you, Tyra Mikaelson," he flirted. I stiffened a bit, seeing the look in his eyes. It was the same look Kol got when he started flirting with random girls. Dammit, thank you, Nik. Seeing my older brother again had triggered the memories I had tried to keep in the back of my mind. Usually it worked pretty well and so far it had been no problem but now? I didn't really have the distraction of figuring out these people at the moment and this last reminder was what gave my shields the rest. Kol… I'm so sorry… I wish I could help you in any way… But Nik won't let me and even Elijah won't help me. Why did you have to believe them? Why? When I ran in 1901, Nik promised that we were safe, that he wouldn't dagger us anymore. He promised that we would be a family again. That Mikael wouldn't find us in New Orleans… They didn't undagger Finn though, so I didn't take any chances and just ran off. It was safer.

A hand touched my shoulder lightly and I looked up at the Doctor "You alright?" I nodded quietly, earning a small smile from the Time Lord before he turned to the Captain angrily "What kind of Chula ship landed here?"

"What?"

Rose stepped closer "He said it was a warship. He stole it, parked it somewhere out there, somewhere a bomb's going to fall on it unless we make him an offer."

"What kind of warship?" the Time Lord questioned again.

"Does it matter?" Harkness exclaimed defensively "It's got nothing to do with this."

The Doctor rolled his eyes "This started at the bomb site. It's got everything to do with it. What. Kind. Of. Warship?"

"An ambulance," the man cried out, pressing a few buttons on his wrist strap "Look." A hologram appeared "That's what you chased through the Time Vortex. It's space junk. I wanted to kid you into thinking it was valuable. It's empty. I made sure of it. Nothing but a shell. I threw it at you. Saw your time travel vehicle, love the retro look, by the way, nice panels. Threw you the bait…"

"Bait?" Rose raised her eyebrow.

I snorted "You're a con man? Why am I not surprised?"

"I wanted to sell it to you and then destroy it before you found out it was junk," Harkness gestured.

"You said it was a war ship," Rose blinked.

Captain Harkness sighed in annoyance. Wow, he really was like my brother but hopefully less homicidal "They have ambulances in wars. It was a con. I was conning you. That's what I am, I'm a con man. I thought you were Time Agents. You're not, are you?"

The blonde shook her head "Just a couple more freelancers."

"Oh," Harkness rolled his eyes "Should have know. The way you guys are blending in with the local colour. I mean, Flag Girl was bad enough but U-Boot Captain and prostitute? Anyway, whatever's happening here has got nothing to do with that ship."

I glared at the man dangerously, barely keeping my face from changing "What did you just call me?"

"Tyra, enough," the Time Lord mumbled, pulling me back a bit.

"What is happening here, Doctor?" the blonde human questioned.

The Doctor looked at her "Human DNA is being rewritten by an idiot."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know," he groaned, rubbing his head "Some kind of virus converting human beings into these things. But why? What's the point?"

Suddenly, the patients all sat up, chanting _"Mummy. Mummy. Mummy? Mummy?"_

"What's happening?" Rose cried in fear, stumbling back.

"I don't know." The Doctor pulled me back as well, closer to a wall "Don't let them touch you."

The blonde tilted her head "What happens if they touch us?"

"You're looking at it," I mumbled.

The patients were closing in on us, caging us against the wall _"Mummy. Help me, mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy. Mummy."_


	10. The Doctor Dances

The patients were still closing in until the Doctor straightened "Go to your room," he commanded sternly. I blinked at him and snorted when the patients actually froze "Go to your room. I mean it. I'm very, very angry with you. I am very, very cross. Go to your room!" The patients hung their heads in shame and shuffled away, causing me to burst into silent giggles "I'm really glad that worked. Those would have been terrible last words."

I snorted "I can't believe that actually worked…"

Rose stumbled forward and glanced at the still patients "Why are they all wearing gas masks?"

"They're not," Jack stated grimly "Those masks are flesh and bone."

The Doctor glared at the younger man "How was your con supposed to work?"

"Simple enough," the Captain shrugged "Find some harmless piece of space junk, let the nearest Time Agent track it back to Earth, convince him it's valuable, name a price. When he's put fifty percent up front, oops! A German bomb falls on it, destroys it forever. He never gets to see what he's paid for, never knows he's been had. I buy him a drink with his money and we discuss dumb luck."

I looked at him appreciatively "Self-cleaning con. Not bad."

"Tyra," the Time Lord warned "No complimenting idiots."

"Hey," Jack exclaimed "The London Blitz is great for self-cleaners. Pompeii is nice if you want to make a vacation of it though but you've got to set your alarm for volcano day." He stopped when he saw the Doctor's glare "Getting a hint of disapproval."

I looked at the Doctor with a glint of mischief in my eyes "Hey, what do you want to bet that we're going to end up in Pompeii on volcano day?"

The Time Lord hummed "How about you think of something and you'll tell me if I lose."

"When you lose, you mean," I laughed "Alright. Deal. Same goes to you."

"Are you two done now?" Rose demanded, glaring at the Doctor and me… Mostly me, though.

The Doctor nodded "Where was I? Oh, right…" He gestured to our surroundings "Look around. This is what your harmless piece of space-junk did."

"It was a burnt-out medical transporter. It was empty," Jack argued.

The Time Lord just shook his head and turned to head out of the room, Rose immediately following, while I stayed back to raise an eyebrow at the Captain "I might not be the person to tell someone else off but if it turns out that you were at fault, I'll definitely be telling you 'I told you so'."

Jack snorted "I programmed the flight computer so it wouldn't land on anything living. I harmed no one. I don't know what's happening here but believe me, I had nothing to do with it."

"I'll tell you what's happening," the Doctor hissed "You forgot to set your alarm clock. It's volcano day."

A siren sounded from outside and I winced at the noisiness of it. Really, didn't those people know that there were vampires around? In other words… Turn that stupid shit down. Rose glanced around "What's that?"

"The all clear," the Captain pointed out.

The Doctor sighed and shook his head "I wish." He grabbed my hand and dragged me along, out of the room and up the stairs. From the corridor, I could hear Rose and Jack calling for the Doctor, while they ran past. The Time Lord rolled his eyes and leaned over the railing "Have you got a blaster?"

"Sure!" Jack exclaimed, backtracking to run up to join us outside a secure metal door.

"The night your space-junk landed, someone was hurt," the Doctor explained "This was where they were taken."

Rose blinked "What happened?"

"Let's find out," the Doctor gestured "Get it open."

The blonde pushed me aside and leaned closer to the Time Lord "What's wrong with your sonic screwdriver?"

I leaned against the wall, watching Jack disintegrating the lock. The Doctor grinned and shrugged at Rose before stepping closer to the other man "Sonic blaster, fifty-first century. Weapon Factories of Villengard?"

"You've been to the factories?" Jack questioned in surprise.

"Once," the Time Lord nodded.

The Conman sighed "Well, they're gone now, destroyed. The main reactor went critical. Vaporized the lot."

The Doctor grimaced "Like I said. Once. There's a banana grove there, now. I like bananas. Bananas are good."

"You like bananas?" I questioned with a small shudder "Never liked them. Or pears. They are disgusting."

"You're right… Pears are disgusting. But bananas… How can you hate bananas?"

I held up my hands in surrender "Sorry?"

"I will convert you yet," the Doctor proclaimed, stalking into the now open room. There were filing cabinets, electronic equipment and a big mess in general "What do you think?"

Jack looked around curiously "Something got out of here."

"Yeah," the Time Lord nodded "And?"

"Something powerful. Angry."

The Doctor trailed his hand across some crayon drawings "Powerful and angry," he murmured sadly.

"A child?" Jack gasped "I suppose this explains Mummy."

Rose frowned "How could a child do this?"

The Doctor then turned on a tape machine and two voices filled the room.

" _Do you know where you are?_ " a man asked.

" _Are you my mummy?_ " Hold on, I recognized the voice. It was the child. The child that followed Nancy around. Was this her brother?

" _Are you aware of what's around you? Can you see?_ " the man asked the child.

" _Are you my mummy?_ " the child repeated.

" _What do you want? Do you know…_ " the man was cut off.

" _I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? I want my mummy. Are you my mummy? Mummy? Mummy?_ "

"Doctor, I've heard the voice before," Rose said.

"Me too," he replied grimly.

" _Mummy?_ " the child repeated again.

"Always are you my mummy… like he doesn't know," Rose muttered. I raised an eyebrow and turned to look at the wall confused. Something is coming out of the walls. A bad feeling?

" _Mummy?_ " Guess who said that.

"Why doesn't he know?" Rose asked.

" _Are you there, mummy? Mummy? Mummy? Please, mummy? Mummy?_ "

"Can you sense it?" I asked as the feeling intensified. The Doctor looked at me in surprise, while the other two stared confused.

"Sense what?" Jack asked, coming to stand next to me. I glanced at him and shifted away, causing a frown to fall over the Captain's face.

The Time Lord sighed impatiently "Funny little human brains. How do you get around in those things?"

Rose rolled her eyes "When he's stressed, he likes to insult species."

"Rose, I'm thinking," the Doctor chided.

The blonde didn't care though, just babbling on "He cuts himself shaving, he does half an hour on life forms he's cleverer than."

"There are these children living rough round the bomb sites," the Doctor muttered "They come out during air-raids looking for food."

" _Mummy, please?_ " the child's voice sounded again from the tape.

The Doctor continued "Suppose they were there when this thing, whatever it was, landed?"

"It was a med ship," Jack exclaimed in annoyance "It was harmless."

"Yes," the Doctor rolled his eyes "You keep saying harmless. Suppose one of them was affected, altered?"

Rose looked at the Time Lord in confusion "Altered how?"

I looked up at the tape recorder when I heard the tell-tale clicking of it having run out, but startled when the child's voice spoke again " _I'm here._ "

"It's afraid. Terribly afraid and powerful," the Doctor told Rose "It doesn't know it yet, but it will do. It's got the power of a god and I just sent it to its room."

"Doctor," I spoke up "Maybe we should just go?"

" _I'm here, now. Can't you see me?_ " the child – Jamie – questioned.

The Time Lord looked at all of us, a sheepish expression on his face "I sent it to its room. This is its room." He turned around and looked at the boy in the gas mask.

" _Are you my mummy? Mummy?_ " Jamie tilted his head.

Rose glanced at the Doctor, panicking "Doctor?"

Jack positioned himself in front of us "Okay, on my signal make for the door." He reached into his pocket "Now!" The Captain aimed what should have been his blaster at the child… When did the banana get there?

The Doctor pulled Jack's blaster from his belt and made a nice square hole in the wall "Go now! Don't drop the banana."

"Why not?!" Jack demanded.

"Good source of potassium," the Time Lord shrugged.

The Captain stormed past him, snatching his blaster back "Give me that." He turned back around, repairing the hole in the wall "Digital rewind. Nice switch."

"It's from the groves of Villengard," the Time Lord proclaimed, putting it back into his packet "I thought it was appropriate."

"There's really a banana grove in the heart of Villengard and you did that?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

The Doctor just shrugged "Bananas are good." He then stopped and pointed at me "I will prove it to you. One way or another you will see it my way."

Suddenly, the wall started to crack, causing Rose to jump closer to the Doctor "Doctor!"

"Come on." We didn't get far, since the patients were coming at us from both sides, trapping us in the corridor with no way out "It's keeping us here till it can get at us."

Jack aimed his blaster in both directions, not knowing what to do "It's controlling them?"

The Doctor shook his head "It is them. It's every living thing in this hospital."

"Okay," Jack shrugged. Apparently, this wasn't the weirdest thing he heard. He held up his gun again "This can function as a sonic blaster, a sonic cannon and as a triple-enfolded sonic disrupter. Doc, what you got?"

The Doctor shifted in embarrassment "I've got a sonic, er… Oh, never mind."

"What?"

"It's sonic, okay?" the Doctor exclaimed "Totally sonic. I am sonicked up."

I started laughing when Jack turned to look at the other man in annoyance "A sonic what?"

"Screwdriver," I pointed out at the same time as Rose grabbed Jack's wrist, pointing the blaster at the floor.

"Going down," she warned and as soon as we fell ungracefully a floor down, the ex-Time Agent repaired the hole in the ceiling.

"Doctor, are you okay?" Rose fussed, looking at the Time Lord worriedly.

The Doctor dusted himself off "Could've used a warning," he grumbled.

"Oh, the gratitude," the blonde rolled her eyes.

"Who has a sonic screwdriver?" Jack demanded.

I patted the Doctor's shoulder when he crossed his arms defensively "I do."

The Captain frowned "Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, ooh, this could be a little more sonic?"

"What, you've never been bored?" the Doctor asked "Never had a long night? Never had a lot of cabinets to put up?"

At the same time as Rose found a light switch, the patients sat up in their beds " _Mummy. Mummy._ "

"Door," Jack called, rushing towards it. I followed him, trying to stay away from the hands that were reaching out towards us. If that was what happened to normal humans, I really didn't want to know what it would do to me… In front of me, Jack was trying to use his blaster to get through the door but nothing happened "Damn it. It's the special features," he grumbled "They really drain the battery."

"Battery?" Rose asked, sounding unimpressed, while I pushed the man out of the way, pulling out one of my hair clips to open the door "That's so lame."

A second later, the lock clicked and the door swung open quietly. I sighed, jumping back to my feet "There you go."

"I was going to send for another one but somebody's got to blow up the factory," Jack complained, glaring at the Doctor. I rolled my eyes, closing the door behind them, swinging up to sit on a table that was by the only window in the room.

Rose nodded at Jack's words "Oh, I know. First day I met him, he blew up my job. That's practically how he communicates."

The Doctor sighed, ignoring their chatter. I wish it were that easy… "Okay, that door should hold it for a bit."

"The door?" the Captain exclaimed "The wall didn't hold it."

"Well, it's got to find us first," the Doctor pointed out "Come on, we're not done yet. Assets, assets."

Jack gave him a look "Well, you've got a banana and in a pinch, you could put up some shelves."

"Window," the Doctor said.

"Barred. Sheer drop outside. Seven stories," Jack shook his head, looking at the wrist strap around his arm.

Rose sighed "And no other exits."

"The assets conversation went in a flash, didn't it?" Jack commented sarcastically.

I glanced up at him "How about you shut up? After all, you're not exactly innocent."

"Oh?" the Captain huffed "And who are you to blame me?"

"Tyra," the Time Lord rolled his eyes and turned to Rose "So, where'd you pick up this one, then?"

"Doctor," Rose scolded, sitting down in a wheelchair.

Jack smirked at the other man "She was hanging from a barrage balloon, I had an invisible spaceship. I never stood a chance."

The Doctor's head snapped to me "Wait, you actually saw her hanging from a barrage balloon?"

"I told you," I defended myself "It's not my fault the phone distracted you."

"You could have said something again," he pointed out.

I fidgeted "Then Niklaus distracted me."

"Okay," the Doctor shrugged, dropping the subject "One, we've got to get out of here. Two, we can't get out of here. Have I missed anything?"

Rose made a noise in the back of her throat "Yeah. Jack just disappeared." The Doctor and I turned around to see that she was right "Okay, so he's vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great looking ones who do that?"

"I'm making an effort not to be insulted," the Doctor mumbled.

The blonde looked up and gestured at him "I mean, men."

The Doctor deadpanned "Okay, thanks, that really helped."

Suddenly, the radio crackled to life "Rose? Tyra? Doctor? Can you hear me? I'm back on my ship. Used the emergency teleport. Sorry, couldn't take you. It's security-keyed to my molecular structure. I'm working on it. Hang in there."

The Time Lord grabbed the radio, holding up the power cord "How are you speaking to us?"

"Om-Com," Jack pointed out "I can call anything with a speaker grill."

"Now there's a coincidence," the Doctor sighed "The child can Om-Com too."

Rose blinked in surprise "He can?"

"Anything with a speaker grill," he nodded "Even the Tardis phone."

"What, you mean the child can phone us?" Rose inquired.

" _And I can hear you. Coming to find you. Coming to find you._ " I sat up in surprise and looked at the radio in shock.

Jack's voice came through the radio again " _Doctor, can you hear that?_ "

"Loud and clear," the Time Lord responded.

" _I'll try to block out the signal. Least I can do._ " The other man was interrupted by the child before Jack came up again " _Remember this one, Rose?_ "

Moonlight Serenade came through the radio and the blonde smiled "Our song." A little while later, Rose was relaxing in a wheelchair again while the Doctor was standing on the table next to where I was sitting, sonicking the barred window "What are you doing?"

"Trying to set up a resonation pattern in the concrete, loosen the bars," the Doctor explained, not looking away from the window.

Rose raised an eyebrow "You don't think he's coming back, do you?"

"Wouldn't bet my life," the Doctor grunted. If he did come back that would just prove that he wasn't too dissimilar from Kol. While my brother loved to pretend, he wasn't heartless. That went for all of my siblings. We had just lived for way too long and that hurt. Caring about people you're going to love either way hurts too much. After a while, you just… stop. How the Doctor managed it, I wasn't sure but he was certainly a remarkable man.

The blonde tilted her head "Why don't you trust him?"

"Why do you?" the Doctor challenged.

"He saved my life. Bloke-wise, that's up there with flossing. I trust him because he's like you. Except for dating and dancing…" Rose stopped when she noticed the Time Lord's look "What?"

The Doctor gestured, trying to figure out what to say "You just assume I'm…"

"What?"

"You just assume that I don't dance," he muttered.

Rose blinked in surprise "What, are you telling me you do dance?"

I looked at her incredulously "He's nine hundred years old, Rose. I think you can safely assume that he at least danced at one point or another."

"Can you dance?"

"Ballroom?" I asked "Yeah."

Rose looked at me weirdly "Why did you learn that?"

I raised a shoulder in a small shrug and looked back out of the barred window "Does it matter?"

"Well," the Doctor cut in "I've got the moves but I wouldn't want to boast."

The blonde girl walked over to turn up the volume of the radio that was still playing Moonlight Serenade "You've got the moves? Show me your moves."

"Rose," the Doctor sighed "I'm trying to resonate concrete."

"Jack will be back," Rose waved off "He'll get us out. So come on. The world doesn't end because the Doctor dances."

She held out her hands and the Doctor looked at her palms. The Time Lord squinted and jumped from the table "Barrage balloon? You were hanging from a barrage balloon."

"Oh, yeah. About two minutes after you left," the girl grinned "Thousands of feet above London, middle of a German air-raid, Union Jack all over my chest. I could have died and Tyra knew all about it."

The Doctor ignored the end of the sentence but I glared at the blonde. Was it my fault that the Doctor ignored me when I told him? "I've traveled with a lot of people but you're setting new records for jeopardy friendly."

Rose rolled her eyes "Is this you dancing? Because I've got notes."

Suddenly, I flailed my arms, hitting my head on the metal wall when the table beneath me disappeared. The Doctor and Rose still hadn't noticed that we changed locations but I couldn't help but glare at Jack, who raised a finger to his lips. I rolled my eyes and slouched over to him silently.

"Oh?" the Doctor muttered "We're calling him Captain Jack now, are we?"

Rose shrugged "Well, his name is Jack and he's a Captain."

I heard said Captain chuckle under his breath, watching the two closely "You're loving this," I accused quietly, once again thinking of Kol. How was this one human… and there was no doubt that he was at least part human… so much like my brother? It wasn't fair.

"He's not really a Captain, Rose," the Time Lord pointed out, his hands still on the other girl's.

"Do you know what I think?" Rose teased "I think you're experiencing Captain envy. You'll find your feet at the end of your legs. You may care to move them."

The Doctor ignored what she said and rolled his eyes "If ever he was a Captain, he's been defrocked."

"Yeah? Shame I missed that." The blonde actually sounded disappointed for some reason.

Jack moved next to me, leaning forward a bit "Actually, I quit. Nobody takes my frock. Most people notice when they've been teleported. You two are so sweet." He glanced at me when I moved away from him and over to the Doctor and Rose "Sorry about the delay. I had to take the nav-com offline to override the teleport security."

The Doctor looked at Jack as if he were an idiot "You can spend ten minutes overriding your own protocols? Maybe you should remember whose ship this is."

"Oh, I do," the Captain leered "She was gorgeous. Like I told her, be back in five minutes."

"This is a Chula ship," the Time Lord realized.

Jack nodded "Yeah, just like that medical transporter. Only this one is dangerous." He watched as the Doctor snapped his fingers and a golden glow enveloped his hands.

"They're what fixed my hands," Rose pointed out "Jack called them… er…"

"Nanobots? Nanogenes?" the Doctor asked.

Rose clapped "Nanogenes. That's it."

"Sub-atomic robots. There are millions of them in here, see? Burned my hand on the console when we landed. All better now." He held out his hand to show us "They activate when the bulk head's sealed. Check you out for damage, fix any physical flaws. Take us to the crash site. I need to see your space junk."

The Captain rolled his eyes "As soon as I get the nav-com back online. Make yourself comfortable," he waved over his shoulder "Carry on with whatever it was you were doing."

"We were talking about dancing," the Doctor said.

Jack glanced at him incredulously "It didn't look like talking."

"It didn't feel like dancing," Rose added.

I sighed and sat down on what appeared to be a bed, burying my head in my hands. It didn't make any sense. Why did Nik let me go? What did he mean with 'man'? It had to be the Doctor but then he would have recognized it when the same man was standing behind me, right? And I hadn't been in England during the twenties. As far as I knew, Nik spent them in Chicago with Rebekah, so naturally, I spent my time in Asia. I looked up when someone sat down next to me "I seem to be asking that a lot recently but… Are you alright?" the Doctor murmured, ignoring Rose and Jack.

"I think so," I sighed "It's just… Meeting Nik has… The memories I hid, they're just a bit overwhelming right now. Especially when…" I shook my head "It doesn't matter."

The Doctor was about to open his mouth "They stole your memories?" Rose burst out.

We both turned back to their conversation "Two years of my life," Jack nodded "No idea what I did. Your friends over there don't trust me and for all I know they're right not to. Okay, we're good to go. Crash site?"

A little while later, we were near the hospital we had been in before at a railway station, hiding behind some large boxes "There it is," Jack pointed out "Hey, they've got Algy on duty. It must be important."

"We've got to get past him," the Doctor pointed out.

Rose straightened he jacket "Are the words distract the guard heading in my general direction?"

I snorted quietly at the thought of her distracting anyone. At the same time, Jack shook his head "I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Don't worry," she frowned "I can handle it."

"I've got to know Algy quite well since I've been in town," Jack said, looking at the blonde pointedly "Trust me, you're not his type. I'll distract him." He waved us away "Don't wait up."

Rose looked after him nervously, while I tilted my head, focussing on hearing what Jack was saying "Relax," the Doctor assured the blonde "He's a fifty-first-century guy. He's just a bit more flexible when it comes to dancing."

"How flexible?"

"Well," the Doctor hummed "By his time, you lot have spread out across half the galaxy."

Rose raised an eyebrow "Meaning?"

" _Hey, tiger. How's it hanging?_ " Jack greeted the soldier.

"So many species, so little time," the Time Lord laughed.

I snorted and almost missed the reply of this Algy " _Mummy?_ "

"Shit," I curse, jumping over the box "He's changing, Doctor."

The Time Lord cursed and ran after me "Stay back," he shouted at Jack. Algy, by now, had fallen to his knees with the force of his retching before his face slowly turned into a gas mask "The effect's become air-borne… accelerating."

The air raid sirens started up again "What's keeping us safe?" Rose worried.

"Nothing," he replied shortly. He looked around, once again ignoring Rose and Jack's conversation about a bomb "Never mind about that," the Doctor snapped "If the contaminant is air-borne now, there are hours left."

Jack frowned "For what?"

"Till nothing, forever. For the entire human race," the Doctor murmured before he looked at me "Can anyone else hear singing?"

I blinked "Now that you mention it… Is that Nancy?"

" _Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops. When the wind blows, the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks, the cradle will fall. Down will come baby, cradle and all._ " The Doctor walked into the shed quietly " _Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree tops. When the wind blows the cradle will rock._ " That's when the Time Lord returned with Nancy in tow. The girl smiled at me for a moment, before we were all running to the covered Chula ambulance.

"You see?" Jack gestured "Just an ambulance."

Nancy looked at the man in surprise "That's an ambulance?"

"It's hard to explain," Rose whispered "It's from another world."

Jack climbed up and looked at the area around the keypad "They've been trying to get in."

The Doctor rolled his eyes "Of course they have. They think they've got their hands on Hitler's latest secret weapon." Jack started punching in a string of numbers "What are you doing?"

"The sooner you see this thing is empty, the sooner you'll know I had nothing to do with it." Was the stoic reply he got. An alarm sounded through the area and I almost fell down, clutching at my ears. Really? The air-raid alarms were bad enough but this thing? "Didn't happen last time."

"It hadn't crashed last time," the Doctor pointed out, putting a steadying hand on my back "There'll be emergency protocols."

"Doctor, what is that?" Rose questioned, panic in her voice "Doctor!"

The Time Lord looked around nervously "Captain, secure those gates."

"Why?" Jack blinked.

"Just do it," the Doctor shouted "Nancy, how did you get in here?"

"I cut the wire."

He threw his sonic to Rose "Show Rose. Setting two thousand four hundred and twenty-eight D. Reattaches barbed wire. Go!" When the others were gone, he turned to me "I need you to close those gates back there. Can you do that?"

"Sure," I nodded, rubbing my temple in pain. I'd have to drink some blood later to get that to stop. Without thinking about it too long, I flashed away, quickly closing the gates the Doctor mentioned before I went back.

When I came back, Jack was on top of the ambulance again, prying the door open "It's empty. Look at it."

"What do you expect in a Chula medical transporter?" the Doctor grounded out "Bandages? Cough drops? Rose?"

The blonde startled "I don't know."

"Tyra?"

I was silent for a moment. Chula ship… Chula ambulance "Nanogenes," I breathed out in shock.

"It wasn't empty, Captain," the Doctor pointed out "There were enough nanogenes in there to rebuild a species."

Jack paled drastically "Oh, God."

The Doctor nodded, sounding slightly satisfied when he spoke next "Getting it now, are we? When the ship crashes, the nanogenes escape. Billions upon billions of them, ready to fix all the cuts and bruises in the whole world. But what they find first is a dead child, probably killed earlier that night, and wearing a gas mask."

"And they brought him back to life?" I questioned in surprise. There isn't much in terms of bringing back the dead although witches for some reason had a knack to always come back whether you wanted them to or not.

The Doctor scoffed "What's life? Life's easy. A quirk of matter. Nature's way of keeping meat fresh. Nothing to a nanogene. One problem, though. These nanogenes, they're not like the ones on your ship. This lot have never seen a human being before. Don't know what a human being's supposed to look like. All they've got to go on is one little body, and there's not a lot left. But they carry right on. They do what they're programmed to do. They patch it up. Can't tell what's gas mask and what's skull, but they do their best. Then off they fly, off they go, work to be done. Because you see, now they think they know what people should look like, and it's time to fix all the rest. And they won't ever stop. They won't ever, ever stop. The entire human race is going to be torn down and rebuilt in the form of one terrified child looking for its mother, and nothing in the world can stop it!"

Jack closed his eyes "I didn't know," he muttered quietly.

The Doctor worked on the ambulance while the patients approached " _Mummy. Mummy._ "

"Rose!" Nancy called out.

Rose looked at the patients and then over at the Doctor "It's bringing the gas mask people here, isn't it?"

The Time Lord nodded "The ship thinks it's under attack. It's calling up the troops. Standard protocol."

"But the gas mask people aren't troops," the blonde pointed out.

"They are now," the Doctor explained "This is a battlefield ambulance. The nanogenes don't just fix you up, they get you ready for the front line. Equip you, programme you."

"That's why the child's so strong. Why it could do that phoning thing."

The Doctor smiled thinly "It's a fully equipped Chula warrior, yes. All that weapons tech in the hands of a hysterical four-year-old looking for his mummy. And now there's an army of them."

The patients surrounded us, outside the barbed wire. They didn't come any closer though "Why don't they attack?"

"Good little soldiers, waiting for their commander," the Time Lord shrugged.

Jack breathed in sharply "The child?"

"Jamie," Nancy snapped.

"What?"

"Not the child," she repeated "Jamie."

Rose looked at the sky and shifted uncomfortably "So how long until the bomb falls?"

Jack glanced at his wrist strap "Any second."

"What's the matter, Captain?" the Doctor mocked "A bit close to the volcano for you?"

Nancy had tears running down her cheeks "He's just a little boy."

"I know," the Doctor murmured softly.

"He's just a little boy who wants his mummy," Nancy said. The way she said it though. Over the years I had run with many witches, many covens. There were occasions when people tried to harm the children… The mothers… Oh. Nancy wasn't Jamie's sister. She was his mother?

The Doctor closed his eyes "I know. There isn't a little boy born who wouldn't tear the world apart to save his mummy. And this little boy can."

"So what're we going to do?" Rose demanded.

I stepped towards Nancy when the patients moved closer to the gates "Nancy. Jamie isn't your little brother, is he?"

The Doctor looked at me in confusion before it dawned on him "Nancy, what age are you? Twenty? Twenty-one? Older than you look, yes?"

"Doctor, that bomb," Jack called out "We've got seconds."

The Time Lord looked back at the other man with hard eyes "So it's volcano day. Do what you've got to do."

"Jack?" Rose breathed when the man vanished for the second time.

"How old were you five years ago?" the Time Lord questioned "Fifteen? Sixteen? Old enough to give birth, anyway. Tyra is right, isn't she? A teenage single mother in 1941. So you hid. You lied. You even lied to him."

The gate opened and Jamie came closer to us "Are you my mummy?"

"He's going to keep asking, Nancy," the Doctor pointed out gently "He's never going to stop. Tell him. Nancy, the future of the human race is in your hands. Trust me and tell him."

Nancy and Jamie walked towards each other "Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy? Are you my mummy?"

"Yes. Yes, I am your mummy," Nancy whispered.

"Mummy?"

"I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

"I'm here."

"Are you my mummy?"

"Yes." Nancy had tears in her eyes again.

"Are you my mummy?"

The Doctor cursed lowly "He doesn't understand. There's not enough of him left."

Nancy took a deep breath "I am your mummy. I will always be your mummy. I'm so sorry. I am so, so sorry." She hugged Jamie and a cloud of nanogenes surrounded them.

"What's happening? Doctor, it's changing her, we should…" Rose panicked.

"Shush!" the Doctor snapped "Come on, please. Come on, you clever little nanogenes. Figure it out! The mother, she's the mother. It's got to be enough information. Figure it out."

"What's happening?"

The Time Lord laughed in relief "See? Recognising the same DNA." Jamie let go and Nancy fell on the ground "Oh, come on. Give me a day like this. Give me this one." The Doctor removed Jamie's gas mask and he slumped when it came off "Ha-ha! Welcome back! Twenty years till pop music - you're going to love it."

"What happened?" Nancy questioned, still sitting on the ground in a daze. I held out my hand to help her up with a small smile. It had to have been hard for her… After all, this time wasn't exactly nice to single mothers…

"The nanogenes recognized the superior information, the parent DNA. They didn't change you because you changed them! Ha-ha! Mother knows best!"

The girl looked at her child softly "Oh, Jamie."

Rose gasped "Doctor, that bomb."

He didn't even turn to look at the approaching projectile "Taken care of it."

"How?"

"Psychology," he shrugged. The bomb hurtled towards them and got caught in Jack's light beam just before impact.

A second later, Jack was sitting on top of the bomb "Doctor!"

"Good lad!" the Time Lord praised.

Jack looked down "The bomb's already commenced detonation. I've put it in stasis but it won't last long."

"Change of plan," the Doctor called up "Don't need the bomb. Can you get rid of it, safely as you can?"

"Rose? Tyra?"

"Yeah?" Rose questioned, while I looked up at him with a tilted head.

"Goodbye." Jack and the bomb vanished then reappeared "By the way, love the tee-shirt. Bye, grumpy." And he vanished again. The spaceship sucked up the light beam and flew off, while the Doctor summoned some nanogenes to himself.

"What are you doing?"

The Doctor shrugged "Software patch. Going to email the upgrade. You want moves, Rose? I'll give you moves." He then threw the nanogenes to the waiting patients, who fell to the ground "Everybody lives. Just this once, everybody lives!" The patients were standing up again, completely back to normal "Doctor Constantine. Who never left his patients. Back on your feet, constant doctor. The world doesn't want to get by without you just yet, and I don't blame it one bit. These are your patients. All better now."

The old man nodded with a grin "Yes, yes, so it seems. They also seem to be standing around in a disused railway station. Is there any particular reason for that?"

"Yeah, well, you know, cutbacks," the Doctor joked "Listen, whatever was wrong with them in the past, you're probably going to find that they're cured. Just tell them what a great doctor you are. Don't make a big thing of it. Okay?"

The Doctor turned around and walked away from them. I glanced over my shoulder to see an old woman hobble up "Doctor Constantine."

"Mrs. Harcourt," the doctor greeted "How much better you're looking."

The woman gestured excitedly "My leg's grown back. When I come to the hospital, I had one leg."

"Well," Doctor Constantine started "There is a war on. Is it possible you miscounted?" I burst into quiet laughter at that answer and stumbled after the Doctor and Rose.

The Time Lord clapped his hands "Right, you lot. Lots to do. Beat the Germans, save the world. Don't forget the welfare state! Setting this to self-destruct, soon as everybody's clear. History says there was an explosion here. Who am I to argue with history?"

"Usually the first in line," Rose teased, following him back to the Tardis.

Once we were back, the Doctor walked up to the Tardis, putting in some coordinates "The nanogenes will clean up the mess and switch themselves off, because I just told them to. Nancy and Jamie will go to Doctor Constantine for help, ditto. All in all, all things considered, fantastic!"

"You're really happy about saving them, aren't you?" I spoke up. I was leaning against the doorway that lead to my room because there was no way I would stick around for long. I needed to feed and soon, otherwise my head would probably explode.

Rose smiled up at the Doctor happily "Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas."

"Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?" he pointed out and turned around to me "What are you doing?"

I gestured over my shoulder "Just need a drink. We can talk later if you want to."

"Doctor." Rose pulled the Time Lord's attention back to her and I sighed. Back to normal then. I really wasn't sure what to make of the blonde. She was petty and childish but I couldn't deny that she was smart. Maybe I would have been the same way if I wasn't stuck at sixteen forever. I had no problem with trying to get along with Rose but she made it impossible. Hell, I normally wouldn't let anyone get away with slapping me but the Doctor liked her. And since this was the most fun I had in ages, I didn't want to risk it by hurting the blonde girl.

A little while later, I was lying on my bed, thinking about how today turned out when someone knocked on the door. The Doctor poked his head in and entered when I waved him in. He grinned and reached up to playfully ruffle my hair "So that was your brother?"

"Yeah," I sighed, closing my eyes for a moment "That was Nik… Well, Niklaus. He – He changed a lot from when we were younger actually." I wrapped my arms around my stomach again, thinking about a time long gone. A darker but in some aspects happier time "Our father… No, not father. Mikael. He didn't like Nik very much. Maybe because he knew that he wasn't his son, maybe because he needed someone weaker than him to take his anger out on. Who knows. After mother turned us into what we are now... He changed… Nik lost himself in the violence, the blood, everything. The more time passed, the more he turned into Klaus, the ruthless Original who won't hesitate to kill his own family. It's – I love him, I really do but sometimes it's hard to know that he could just pop up at any second with a dagger and put me back in the coffin I've been in for decades at a time."

The Doctor squeezed my hand gently "You know… You're even stronger than I thought. You survived so much and for that, you're still compassionate."

I laughed bitterly "I'm not compassionate, Doctor. That's the last thing I am."

"You helped Indra to calm down, you helped me... You can't tell me that you don't see that," he argued quietly.

"I helped Indra to calm down and I compelled him later. I attacked Van Statten and I compelled Rose. You can't tell me that you don't think that that's evil," I exclaimed. He couldn't be this nice to me. I didn't deserve it.

The Doctor leaned forward and grabbed one of my hands in his "If you're evil then what am I? I practically slaughtered my entire race along with the Daleks."

"You had no other choice," I murmured "Not like me."

"Right," he nodded "Let me ask you a few questions though. You compelled Indra. Why?"

I shrugged "I didn't want him to remember what I said about my family…"

"So you did it to keep them safe? Did you kill Van Statten?"

"No," I sighed "I should have, though. He was an idiot."

The Time Lord snorted "You're right, he was. But you didn't kill him. And you only compelled Rose because she wanted to tell your secret. Something that she had no right to do. Tyra, what I'm trying to say is that you're not evil. Sure, you made some bad choices but you've been alive long enough to know that sometimes you have to be selfish. Sometimes you have to do what's best for you. That doesn't make you evil…"

"But I killed so many people," I whispered, a tear running down my face "And I didn't care. I never cared."

"You do now," the Doctor pointed out "The longer you're alive, the more you convince yourself that you don't care but in reality… you still do. It hurts to think about but locking others out. That's not the answer."

I raised my head to look at him "Why do you care so much about me?"

"You're my friend," the Doctor smiled "I can relate to you and the other way around. We might not be the same species but both of us did things we're not proud of. Nothing can change that but we can help each other in moving forward." He moved closer to sit next to me, leaning against the headboard "How about you tell me about some things you've been up to the past centuries?"

I smiled, leaning my head against his shoulder comfortably "Well, there was this time when I was still human. Nik and our older brother Elijah were sword fighting and…" I told the Time Lord about some of the good memories I had, even though some were tainted by sadness and self-hatred. In between stories of my past, the Doctor would tell me about his past lives. Regeneration, he called it. Something about changing into a whole new person. To be completely honest, that sounded terrifying and kind of awesome at the same time. I laughed a bit when he came to his fifth regeneration "You wore a stick of celery? Why?"

"Would you believe me if I said that I really can't remember?" the Doctor scratched his head sheepishly "But it was still better than the next one. It was like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat."

I frowned and looked up at him "You're kidding, right? Your taste can't have been that bad."

"Oi," he pouted "I liked it back then. It fit the hair."

"Well, I quite like the look you're going for now," I told him with a grin "Much more mysterious than celery, a scarf you're tripping over or a Technicolour coat."

"Why thank you," the Doctor laughed before leaning his head against the headboard "Can I ask you something?"

I shrugged "Sure. What's up?"

"The way you treated Jack… There was something else," he murmured "Why don't you like him?"

I bit my lip and struggled with what to say for a moment "It's – It's not that I don't like him as such. He reminds me of someone and… it hurts, you know?"

"I know how that feels," the Doctor sighed quietly "Who does he remind you of?"

"Kol," I snorted "Jack has the same attitude as Kol. Flirty, mischievous and serious if needed be. Jack just… reminds me of what I lost with Nik running into us earlier."

The Time Lord put a hand on my shoulder "Maybe you should tell him that? Explain… If he's coming with us, I'd rather not have a feud on the Tardis. Way too domestic for my taste."

I let out a small laugh "You and domestic. Hold on. He's here? You saved him?"

"Rose," the Doctor pointed out "And I was on a roll."

"Everybody lives, eh?"

"Exactly," he nodded, standing up "Get some sleep, alright? And come to me if you need to talk. I'd like to hear more stories someday."

"Right back at you," I pointed out "You still have to tell me more about your Companions. They sound like good people."

The Doctor nodded "They were. I'll see you tomorrow."


	11. Boom Town

It's been a few months since Jack joined us in the Tardis and I had explained something to him. Why I behaved the way I did and I apologized.

"Who the hell are you?" Jack asked after a knock sounded at the door. We had landed in Cardiff a few minutes ago to refuel on the rift that was opened when we were in Cardiff last with Charles Dickens.

"What do you mean, who the hell am I? Who the hell are you?" Mickey spat from outside.

"Captain Jack Harkness. Whatever your selling, we're not buying."

"Get out of my way!"

"Don't tell me. This must be Mickey," Jack remarked, coming over to the console.

"Here comes trouble! How are you doing, Ricky boy?" the Doctor gibed.

Mickey glared at the Time Lord "It's Mickey!"

"Don't listen to him, he's winding you up," Rose grinned.

"You look fantastic." Rose and Mickey hugged, while the Doctor is up a ladder mending something.

"Aww, sweet, look at these two. How come I never get any of that?" Jack questioned sarcastically.

"Buy me a drink first," I smirked.

"You're such hard work," Jack complained.

"But worth it," I muttered. When the men stared at me, I waggled my eyebrows.

"Did you manage to find it?" Rose asked Mickey when they separated.

"There you go." Mickey handed over Rose's passport.

Rose smiled "I can go anywhere now."

"I told you, you don't need a passport," the Doctor explained for the tenth time since Rose brought it up.

"It's all very well going to Platform One and Justicia and the Glass Pyramid of San Kaloon, but what if we end up in Brazil? I might need it. You see, I'm prepared for anything."

"Isn't that what the psychic paper is for?" I joked.

"Sounds like your staying, then. So, what're you doing in Cardiff? And who the hell's Jumping Jack Flash? I mean, I don't mind you hanging out with big-ears up there. Maybe I should start to flirt with Tyra over there," Mickey sighed "But this guy, I don't know, he's kind of –"

"Handsome?" Jack suggested.

"More like cheesy."

Jack frowned in confusion "Early twenty-first Century slang. Is cheesy good or bad?"

"It's bad," Mickey and I said simultaneously.

"But bad means good, isn't that right?" Jack reasoned.

"Are you saying I'm not handsome?" The Doctor climbed down from his ladder.

"We just stopped off. We need to refuel. The thing is, Cardiff's got this rift running through the middle of the city. It's invisible, but it's like an earthquake fault between different dimensions," Rose told Mickey.

"The rift was healed back in 1869," the Doctor continued.

"Thanks to a girl named Gwyneth, because these creatures called the Gelth, they were using the rift as a gateway but she saved the world and closed it."

"But closing a rift always leaves a scar, and that scar generates energy, harmless to the human race," Jack joined in as well.

"But perfect for the Tardis, so just park it here for a couple of days right on top of the scar and –"

"Open up the engines, soak up the radiation."

"Like filling her up with petrol and off we go!"

"Into time!"

"And space!" the other exclaimed together.

I shook my head in bemusement "Am I the only sane one here?" I questioned "Huh. Never thought that I would call myself sane one of these days. First time for everything."

"My God, have you seen yourselves? You all think you're so clever, don't you?" Mickey shook his head.

"Yeah," the Doctor nodded.

"Yeah," Rose agreed.

"Yep!" Jack – of course – took it a step further and had to slap Mickey lightly.

"Should take another twenty-four hours, which means we've got time to kill," the Doctor said, as we exited the Tardis.

"That old lady's staring," Mickey pointed out.

"Probably wondering what five people could do inside a small wooden box," Jack laughed.

The younger boy blinked at Jack "What are you Captain of, the Innuendo Squad?" The Captain made a 'Whatever' sign and started to walk away with the rest of us following "Wait, the Tardis, we can't just leave it. Doesn't it get noticed?"

"Yeah, what's with the police box?" the Captain questioned "Why does it look like that?"

Rose leaned against the side of the blue box "It's a cloaking device."

"Ah," the Doctor sighed "It's called a chameleon circuit. The Tardis is meant to disguise itself wherever it lands like if this was Ancient Rome, it'd be a statue on a plinth or something. But I landed in the 1960s, it disguised itself as a police box and the circuit got stuck."

"So it copied the real thing?" Mickey wondered "There actually was police boxes?"

I nodded "On street corners, I think. You could phone for help and shove the suspect in there till help came, like a little prison cell."

Jack tilted his head "Why don't you just fix the circuit?"

"I like it, don't you?" the Doctor grinned.

"I love it," Rose nodded.

Mickey waved his hands around a bit "But that's what I meant. There are no police boxes anymore, so doesn't it get noticed?"

The Doctor sighed in annoyance "Ricky, let me tell you something about the human race. You put a mysterious blue box slap bang in the middle of town, what do they do? Walk past it." He clapped Mickey's back and started walking again "Now, stop your nagging. Let's go and explore."

"What's the plan?" the blonde girl questioned.

"I don't know," the Time Lord shrugged "Cardiff, early twenty-first century and the wind's coming from the east. Trust me. Safest place in the universe."

A little while later, we were sitting in a restaurant, listening to Jack telling stories "I swear," he laughed "Six feet tall and with big tusks."

"You're lying through your teeth!" the Doctor exclaimed.

Rose shook her head in amazement "I'd have gone bonkers! That's the word – bonkers!"

Jack grinned "I mean, it turns out the white things are tusks and I mean tusks! And it's woken, and it's not happy."

The Time Lord tilted his head in amusement "How could you not know it was there?"

"And we're standing there, fifteen of us, naked…" Jack explained.

The blonde cut in "Naked?!"

"And I'm like, oh, no, no, it's got nothing to do with me," the Captain continued "And then it roars, and we are running. Oh my God, we are running! And Brakovitch falls, so I turn to him and I say…"

Mickey was the one who finished the line "I knew we should have turned left!"

Jack nodded, roaring with laughter "That's my line!"

"I don't believe you," Rose shook her head "I don't believe a word you say ever. That is so brilliant. Did you ever get your clothes back?"

I looked up at the Doctor when he got up to snatch a newspaper from the man at the next table "Doctor?"

"And I was having such a nice day," he murmured, holding up the front page of the Western Mail, with the picture of a very familiar woman. Well, it seemed as if a certain Slitheen showed up again and as Mayor of Cardiff nevertheless.

Jack clapped his hands once we reached City Hall "According to intelligence, the target is the last surviving member of the Slitheen family, a criminal sect from the planet Raxacoricofallapatorius, masquerading as a human being, zipped inside a skin suit. Okay, plan of attack, we assume a basic fifty-seven fifty-six strategy, covering all available exits on the ground floor. Doctor, you go face to face with Tyra. That'll designate Exit One, I'll cover Exit Two. Rose, you Exit Three. Mickey Smith, you take Exit Four. Have you got that?"

The Doctor cleared his throat "Excuse me. Who's in charge?"

"Sorry," Jack grinned sheepishly, saluting "Awaiting orders, sir."

"Right," the Doctor nodded "Here's the plan," he paused for a moment "As he said. Nice plan. Anything else?"

I spoke up then "Yeah. I'll go with Mickey. Don't fancy the face to face thing."

"Fine with me," the Time Lord shrugged.

Jack looked at all of us and when no one said anything else, he pulled out his phone "Present arms." We each pulled our phones out and chorused 'Ready' before walking off.

I pulled Mickey down the right hallway and nudged the other boy lightly "You alright?"

"Yeah," he smiled lightly "You know… That advice you've given me… Thank you for that."

"My pleasure," I curtsied with a grin.

When I opened my mouth to say something else, the Doctor's voice filtered through the speaker of my phone "Slitheen heading north."

Mickey's eyes widened "Oh, my God."

"Come on, Mickey," I called, running to the exit. I vaulted over the cleaning woman's trolley, landing in a roll, before looking back when I heard a crash. Mickey had run right into the woman and I winced in sympathy.

I burst out of the door just as Margaret was about to run past "Well, hello there, bitch. Missed me?" I asked with a smirk, getting in her way.

She didn't stop though. Whatever I expected, it wasn't the piece of wood that was rammed into my chest "I did my research..." the Slitheen whispered into my ear, shoving the stake in deeper "See you in hell." I choked, falling to my knees in pain. My hands went up to pull at the wood weakly. I could feel the veins creeping up to my face before everything went black.

**3rd Person PoV**

"Margaret," the Doctor called, running after the Slitheen.

Jack and Rose ran behind him "Who was on Exit Four?"

"That was Mickey," Rose panted.

The Doctor froze, staring at the desiccated body on the ground "And Tyra." The others didn't notice him bending down to brush a strand of the girl's hair out of her face. She was a sickly grey with veins covering her whole body… So that was what she meant. This would happen every time she died. The Time Lord shrugged out of his jacket and put it over the Original's face and upper body, before standing up "You shouldn't have done that," he called after Margaret who had started running.

"She's got a teleport," Jack exclaimed in annoyance "That's cheating. Now we're never going to get her."

Rose grinned at him "Oh, the Doctor's very good at teleports."

The Time Lord, his expression still stormy, held up his sonic, simply pressing the button, making Margaret reappear. She stopped, turned and started running again. She vanished and reappeared, closer every time until she was right in front of them "I could do this all day."

"Oh, my God," Mickey breathed, finally noticing the body of his friend on the ground "You killed her."

That made Jack look down to see the covered body of the girl he liked as a friend. Even though she had been distant for a while, she told him the reason and he understood. More than understood… He could actually relate to it "What? Why did you kill her?"

"This is persecution," Margaret hissed, glaring at the people in front of her "Why can't you leave me alone? What did I ever do to you?"

"You killed Tyra," the three men exclaimed.

The Slitheen waved them off "The vampire? She deserved it. Freaks like her shouldn't exist."

Jack snorted "Says the Slitheen that's occupying a meat suit… Hang on, did you say vampire?"

"Vampires exist?" Mickey blinked "How do you turn into one?"

The Doctor waved his hand dismissively "It's not important right now. You're coming with us, Margaret. Jack, make sure she doesn't run." The Time Lord bent down to pick up his fallen friend to carry her into City Hall. Inside the Mayor's office, he carefully put down the girl on an empty table, pulling his jacket from her upper body. Once the others got a good look at her, they gasped at the sight. Rose sneered at her fellow Companion in disgust, while Mickey and Jack looked on in wonder. The ex-Time Agent had heard about the existence of vampires before but he didn't think that it was true. After all, it was only a folk tale "So, you're a Slitheen, you're on Earth, you're trapped. Your family gets killed just in the nick of time. You have no means of escape. What do you do? You build a nuclear power station. But what for?"

"Doctor," Jack murmured "Is it really the time to ask that now? Tyra is dead."

"Oh," he blinked "She's gonna be fine. Give her a little time."

Margaret looked at the Time Lord and then at the desiccated beast on one of her conference tables. What was he on about? The girl was a vampire and she was sure that she was right in stabbing her in the heart with a stake "A philanthropic gesture," she answered the Doctor's earlier question evasively "I've learned the error of my way."

The Doctor snorted "And it just so happens to be right on top of the rift."

"What rift would that be?"

"As if you don't know," a quiet voice groaned from behind the other time travelers and Mickey. Tyra was sitting up carefully, pulling at the piece of wood that was still in her chest "Dammit… That hurts like hell." She glanced at the Doctor "Remind me to never get stabbed in the heart again. Forgot how painful that was."

**Tyra PoV**

Mickey gaped at me "How did you do that?"

"You're not supposed to be alive," Margaret pointed out, looking slightly afraid.

I jumped from the table, stalking closer to the Slitheen "Congratulations. You have successfully earned the wrath of an Original vampire. I'd be afraid. Very afraid."

The Doctor caught me around the waist before I could pounce "Stop it."

"She killed me," I exclaimed, veins appearing under my eyes "Just because I didn't kill Adam when he snapped my neck, doesn't mean that I will let that go."

"This is so cool," Mickey gushed, leaning forward to take a closer look at my face.

I raised an eyebrow at him "Well… That wasn't how I expected this to go."

"What did you expect?" Jack questioned, looking just as intrigued as Mickey.

"I don't know," I shrugged "A bit more hatred? Fear, maybe calling me a monster? That is what usually happens after all."

The Doctor rolled his eyes at the three of us and turned back to Margaret "This station is designed to explode the minute it reaches capacity."

That was when Rose stopped glaring at me. She had taken a place as far away from me as possible, hiding behind Mickey and a few tables "Didn't anyone notice? Isn't there someone in London checking this sort of stuff?"

"We're in Cardiff," the Slitheen snorted "London doesn't care. The South Wales coast could fall into the sea and they wouldn't notice." She froze in surprise "Oh. I sound like a Welshman. God help me, I've gone native."

I groaned, letting my head fall back onto the Doctor's shoulder "That's all well and good… I'm gonna go back to the Tardis and shower. Still feeling a tad… dead." Before anyone could say anything, I slipped past them, hurrying back to the Tardis that was still parked on the Plass. I wasn't sure what to feel about the fact that the others knew that I was a vampire now. Maybe a small part of me was relieved… I didn't have to hide it anymore… But on the other hand, I doubted that the would treat me normally after what they just learned.

It took me about ten minutes to reach the Tardis and another hour to take a long – very long – shower and to get dressed. I pulled on a tight grey top along with a dark red leather jacket and tight black jeans that had a few rips. I quickly braided my still damp hair and made my way back to the console room with one of the blood bags the Tardis provided for me. I didn't normally drink from bags but while traveling with the Doctor, it was the best choice.

"This ship is impossible," the Slitheen marveled when she stepped in. I shot her a glare but ignored her otherwise "It's superb. How did you get the outside around the inside?"

The Doctor shot her a glare, walking over to me "Like I'd give you the secret, yeah." He stopped in front of me "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I nodded "This isn't the first time something like this happened."

"Doesn't necessarily make it better," he pointed out, placing his hand on my shoulder.

Margaret took that moment to interrupt "I almost feel better about being defeated. I never stood a chance. This is the technology of the Gods."

"Don't worship me," the Doctor rolled his eyes "I'd make a very bad God. You wouldn't get a day off, for starters. Jack, how we doing, big fella?"

Jack looked down at a board in his hands "This extrapolator's top of the range. Where did you get it?"

"Oh, I don't know," the Slitheen shrugged, not really interested in the conversation anymore. I could feel her looking at me in trepidation as if expecting me to attack her at any moment. If the Doctor hadn't been here, she would probably already be dead but since I was trying to prove to myself that I wasn't a monster… I might actually spare someone for once "Some airlock sale?"

"Must have been a great big heist," Jack mocked "It's stacked with power."

The Doctor leaned over the Captain "But we can use it for fuel?"

"It's not compatible," Jack shook his head "But it should knock off about twelve hours. We'll be ready to go by morning."

"Then we're stuck here overnight," the Time Lord murmured. I got up, leaning against the console next to Jack, watching what he was doing.

Margaret sat down on the seat I was sitting on a minute ago "I'm in no hurry."

"We've got a prisoner," Rose realized "The police box is really a police box."

The Slitheen scoffed "You're not just police, though. Since you're taking me to my death, that makes you my executioners. Each and every one of you."

"Well, you deserve it," Mickey bit out.

"You're very quick to say so," Margaret pointed out "You're very quick to soak your hands in my blood, which makes you better than me, how, exactly?"

I smirked at her dangerously "I think it's better than the alternative. I could torture you to death if that's what you want?"

"Tyra," the Doctor scolded.

"Hey," Mickey jumped in, sitting down on the railing across from me "Can I ask you something?"

I raised my eyebrow at him "You're really into this, aren't you?"

The boy grinned sheepishly "Can't blame me, can you? First aliens and now vampires. Wait a second, you're not alien, are you?"

"No," I shook my head "I was human once… A long time ago."

Jack glanced up from the wires "How long ago?"

I shifted "A thousand years. Give or take a few decades. My siblings and I were changed in 1001 AD."

"So you're over a thousand years old?" Mickey breathed "Woah."

"I know," I chuckled "I'm old as dirt."

"How do you become a vampire anyway?" Rose asked, glaring at me again.

I tugged at my braid and started playing with my hair "In your current health situation? I'd have to feed you my blood and kill you," I murmured "To become a vampire, you have to die with vampire blood in your system."

"Wicked," Mickey leaned forward "How do you feed though? Shouldn't people know about vampires?"

"Probably," I smirked "But I can make you do anything I want. Anything."

Jack frowned "I seriously doubt that."

"Are you challenging me?" I wondered, an idea blooming inside my head. I exchanged an amused look with the Doctor and turned back to the Captain.

"No," he denied "I just don't believe you."

I stalked forward "I can change that." Without so much as a pause, I crouched down, tilting the man's head up "You will let me do anything I want to you. Anything."

"Anything," Jack repeated, his pupils dilating.

"Great," I clapped my hands "Come along then. Mickey, you too."

The Doctor looked after me "What are you going to do?"

"You'll see," I called back, pushing Jack and Mickey through some corridors into an empty room "Now, Mickey. Grab a paintbrush and think of a design," I compelled "Jack. Strip." I watched the happenings with a mischievous glint in my eyes. I really hoped that the Tardis would record this. This was the best blackmail ever.

Half an hour later, the three of us joined the Doctor, Rose and the Slitheen back in the console room "What the…?" the Doctor gaped "What are you doing?"

I snorted "You'll see." I looked up at Jack, gesturing to the Tardis doors "Now, Captain. Would you like to do me the favour and walk right out of here and jump into the Bay?" I pointed at the Slitheen "You! Stay where you are."

Jack nodded, starting the walk out of the doors. As soon as he was out, Mickey blinked a few times "Did I really just do that?"

I patted his shoulder while leaning out of the doors to smirk after Jack "Yup. But look on the bright side, at least you're not walking around the Plass naked with paint all over you."

Rose was standing outside the doors next to the Doctor, also following the Captain's walk of shame with wide eyes "You can actually do that," she breathed, fear in her voice.

The Doctor's lips twitched "It's his own fault for not believing Tyra. She warned him after all. Good one."

"Thanks," I grinned "Kol taught me well."

After we heard the splash, we retired back into the Tardis, grinning at the Captain's misfortune. Before anyone could say anything else, Margaret spoke up "Do I get a last request?"

The Doctor turned to her with narrowed eyes "Depends what it is."

"I grew quite fond of my little human life," she said "All those rituals. The brushing of the teeth, and the complicated way they cook things. There's a little restaurant just around the Bay. It became quite a favourite of mine."

The Time Lord raised his eyebrows in disbelief "Is that what you want, a last meal?"

"It's not like I can escape," the Slitheen pointed out "So where's the danger? I wonder if you could do it? To sit with a creature you're about to kill and take supper. How strong is your stomach?"

The Doctor looked at us "When Jack comes back, tell him to finish with the extrapolator. I'm going to dinner with a Slitheen."

"Have fun?" I shrugged. Once they were gone, Mickey and Rose stepped out as well. Something about talking about their situation or something. I looked up at the console "Please tell me you recorded this." The monitor in front of me flashed, showing the events that happened in the last hour, along with several pictures of Jack from various angles. I burst into laughter "You're awesome. Thank you, Tardis."

"I hate you," Jack hissed, slinking back into the Tardis, shivering from the cool air.

I raised my hands in surrender "You were the one who challenged me. Never could resist a proper challenge. Oh, the Doctor wants you to finish with the extrapolator thing." I looked him up and down "Maybe you should get dressed first?"

"Are you sure you wouldn't prefer me naked?" Jack leered.

"Oh, if I wanted you naked, I could have already had you," I pointed out, flashing my fangs at him for a moment "Go get dressed."

A while later, after Jack had finished hooking up the surfboard to the console, the Tardis started shaking uncontrollably. By then, I had retired to my room to get another blood bag. Once I felt the shaking, I ran through the halls back to the console room.

"What the hell are you doing?" the Doctor burst in the same time I arrived in the console room.

"It just went crazy!" Jack defended.

The Time Lord ran around the console, checking several things "It's the rift. Time and space are ripping apart. The whole city's going to disappear!"

"It's the extrapolator. I've disconnected it but it's still feeding off the engine! It's using the Tardis. I can't stop it!" Jack panicked.

"Never mind Cardiff, it's going to rip open the planet."

Rose entered, completely out of breath "What is it? What's happening?"

"Oh, just little me," the Slitheen simpered. She ripped an arm off and grabbed Rose by the throat "One wrong move and she snaps like a promise."

"I might have known," the Doctor sneered darkly. I was about to take a step forward to free the blonde girl but the Doctor held me back.

"I've had you bleating all night, poor baby, now shut it. You, flyboy, put the extrapolator at my feet," she ordered Jack and tightened her grip on Rose's throat. The Doctor nodded and Jack obeyed hesitatingly "Thank you. Just as I planned."

"I thought you needed to blow up a nuclear power station," Rose croaked.

"Failing that, if I were to be arrested, then anyone capable of tracking me down would have considerable technology of their own. Therefore, they would be captivated by the extrapolator. Especially a magpie mind like yours, Doctor. So the extrapolator was programmed to go to plan B. To lock onto the nearest alien power source and open the rift. And what a power source it found. I'm back on schedule, thanks to you," the Slitheen said.

"The rift's going to convulse. You'll destroy the whole planet," Jack pointed out.

"And you with it!" she spat, standing on top on the extrapolator "While I ride this board over the crest of the inferno all the way to freedom. Stand back, boys, freak. Surf's up."

"I think the Tardis might have something to say to that," I muttered as the central console started to break apart.

"It's not just any old power source," the Doctor agreed "It's the Tardis. My Tardis. The best ship in the universe."

"It'll make wonderful scrap," Margaret sneered.

"What's that light?" Rose questioned, squinting at the Doctor.

"The heart of the Tardis," the Doctor grinned "She's alive. And you opened her soul."

"It's so bright," the Slitheen breathed, staring into the open console.

"Look at it, Margaret," the Time Lord urged.

"Beautiful."

"Look inside, Blon Fel Fotch. Look at the light."

The Slitheen relaxed and slackened her hold on Rose, who ran over to Jack and me.

"Thank you," she smiled at the Doctor before she disappeared into the light.

"Don't look," the Doctor shouted "Stay there. Close your eyes." He started working on closing the console "Now, Jack, come on, shut it all down. Shut down! Tyra, that panel over there, turn all the switches to the right." When the console was like it was before, the Doctor sighed in relief "Nicely done. Thank you all."

"What happened to Margaret?" Rose asked, her voice still rough.

"Must have burned up," Jack shrugged "Carried out her own death sentence."

"No, I don't think she's dead," the Doctor mused.

I crept over to the empty bodysuit and knelt down "I don't think so either," I remarked and pulled out a really weird egg. I mean it had dreadlocks…

"She's an egg?" Rose raised an eyebrow.

"Regressed to her childhood," the Doctor confirmed.

"She's an egg?" Jack echoed Rose.

"She can start again. Live her life from scratch. If we take her home, give her to a different family, tell them to bring her up properly, she might be all right!"

"Or she could be worse," Jack pointed out.

"Let's not hope that," I sighed.

"She's an egg," Rose repeated.

"Seriously, Rose? Get over it." I looked down at the egg Slitheen.

Jack eyed the egg "Next stop, Raxacoricofallapatorius. Now you don't often get to say that."

"We'll just stop by and pop her in the hatchery. Margaret the Slitheen can live her life again. A second chance," the Doctor remarked softly.

"That'd be nice," Rose sighed.

I grimaced. Here was a nineteen-year-old basically telling me that her life was so 'bad' that she'd want a second chance. If I could change anything, I'd make sure that Esther didn't even get the chance to make us into what we became. Everything my siblings and I turned out to be, was her fault. Hers and Mikael's.


	12. Bad Wolf

I groaned when I came to. What happened? The last thing I remembered was coming back to the Tardis after visiting Kyoto in 1336… So where was I now? "About time you woke up," an unfamiliar voice said. I jerked away from the hand on my shoulder and rolled onto my feet. Before I could stop myself I swayed, clutching my head "Calm down. The transmat beam can scramble your head a bit."

"Transmat?" I squinted "Where the hell am I?"

The man raised an eyebrow "Satellite Five," he pointed out "I'm Colin."

"Right," I mumbled distractedly. Instead of telling him my name, I glanced around. I was in a large room that looked like the set of a game show "How did I get here?"

Colin tilted his head "Transmat beam. Picks you at random."

"Yes, yes… But for what?" I asked, crossing my arms.

"You're not serious?" he chuckled, stopping when he noticed my look "Okay, maybe you are. It's for the game?"

I shook my head, not quite understanding what he was talking about "What game? No, wait… What am I doing on Satellite Five? Last time I was here it was sending out news…?"

Colin raised an eyebrow "That was over ninety years ago," he pointed out "And you're in _Catchphrase._ "

" _Catchphrase_ … _Catchphrase?_ As in the… Okay, you know what? Never mind." I rubbed my hands over my face "One more question… What am I here for?"

"You really don't know?" The man looked at me in disbelief " _Catchphrase_ is one of the many shows that Satellite Five runs. The transmat beam picks people from Earth at random to perform in the shows."

I bit my lip "But I wasn't on Earth…"

Before he could say anything else, the guy next to the big screen called for all the contestants to come on stage "All contestants to their places. First is Colin, then Tyra and to the right is Mazie."

"Quick question," I spoke up after I took the middle stand "This was the one with the videos and pictures where you have to guess the idioms?"

Colin turned to me an annoyed look on his face "Can't you just give it a rest?"

"Well, excuse me for being fucking confused," I hissed "I have no idea where my friends are and why I'm here. Humour me."

It was the woman who answered me "Yes. The first round is the first two who get three phrases each will go to the next round. After that it's the first who gets to five thousand credits wins the game."

I nodded "Thanks… Mazie, was it?"

"Yes."

The host was wheeled up to the stage area as well. Contrary to how it was back in the 21st century, here the host was an android "Welcome to Catchphrase," the robot announced after the person behind the camera called action "The game where adding words to pictures could mean winning out jackpot which today is up to thirty thousand credits." It turned to face us "Alright, as for today's contestants. First up, Colin. Tell us about yourself."

Colin puffed up "I'm Colin, I am thirty-two years old and I work as a banker."

"What do you do in your free time, Colin?"

"I like to watch the TV, especially Catchphrase," he answered. I exchanged a grimace with Maize, internally hoping for the pompous idiot to be send home soon. He couldn't possible crawl up the host's ass any more than he already did.

The android nodded its head "So you are prepared for today. Will you be the one to win the jackpot?"

"I certainly hope so," Colin smirked.

"Alright," the robot turned to me "Our next contestant is Tyra." I nodded, not really saying anything "Tell us something about yourself?"

I snorted "Sorry. I'd rather not." On the other side of the room, I could see the people turning to each other, whispering. Not that I cared much about it. I had other things to worry about… Getting out of here was the major thing. As far as I knew they did breaks between the first round and the money winning bit. Maybe that's when I could run? I had to find the Doctor and the others… Hopefully, they were around here as well.

The android waited for another moment before moving on to the girl next to me "And last but not least, Maize. How are you today?"

"Nervous," she smiled shakily.

"Are you confident that you'll win today?"

Maize shrugged "I don't know. I guess we'll have to see, right?"

"Yes," the robot agreed, rolling back to the left side of the screen "Right. A catchphrase could be a common saying, the title of a song or even the name of a TV program. The first two to reach three correct answers are through to the next round, the one who doesn't will be eliminated. Okay, now. Fingers on your buzzers. Let's play… _Catchphrase._ " The screen next to it flickered to life "On to our first catchphrase." Huh… They still had this Mr Chips guy then. Fascinating… Maybe the human race didn't change that much "What is Mr Chips doing?"

The video showed the thing jumping up and down. After a few seconds, it zoomed out to show a TV whose channels were changing along with Mr. Chips jumping on a remote. I hit the buzzer "Channel hopping."

"That's correct," the android said "That is Tyra in the lead. Tyra, you only need two more correct answers to get to the next round." It turned back to the screen.

Now it was a person, standing in a stadium. They made to throw a ball but started throwing it up and down when it light up. It fell to the floor and an arrow appeared, pointing to the ball. The video repeated once until Maize hit the buzzer hesitatingly "Hotshot?"

The robot was silent for a moment "That is correct. Maize, Tyra, you are in the lead. Colin, you still have the chance to get in the game. Here is the next catchphrase."

A man in a boxing ring appeared with numbers crowing around him. He was backed into a corner by them and started hitting them. The guy lifted his hands after… the uneven numbers were lying on the ground "Beating the Odds," I murmured after hitting the buzzer.

The game continued. I got the next one – which turned out to be Lord of the Flies – and was through to the next round. Colin got a point and the battle was on. The guy next to me got more and more nervous when Maize scored another point. What was going on here? They acted as if it was life or death? After another correct answer from Colin the score was two-two… The next video was another one with a boxing ring. Only this time a man was standing opposite of a tooth. A few seconds later, a nail jumped in and Maize hit the buzzer excitedly "Fighting Tooth and Nail," she burst out.

"That is correct," the android said and turned to Colin "Colin, you have lost the first round. You leave this game with nothing. Goodbye." A beam shot out of its mouth, causing me to flinch back. As soon as the beam was finished, Colin was gone and in his place was a pile of dust.

A sound echoed through the room, startling me out of the shock "And we've gone to adverts. Back in five minutes."

"He's dead," I muttered, looking at Maize.

She frowned "Yes. That's what happens when you lose a game."

I scoffed "What the hell is going on here?" Alright. I got lucky now but I should really find the others… Before they got disintegrated as well. I looked around the room, seeing several security officers standing by a door… Well, I wasn't a vampire for nothing. I flashed towards them as fast as I could, ripping into them. I made sure not to kill them, instead only injuring them enough so they would let me go. An alarm sounded and I whirled around, flashing to the floor manager "You will tell whoever will come here that you accidentally pressed the button. This was a false alarm. Nothing happened." They repeated what I said and I smirked "Well, I'll just be off then. Maize, wanna come with me?"

"W – What are you?" she stuttered, tripping over her feet.

"I'm sure you can guess," I rolled my eyes "Either you come or you're not." With that I ran back to the door, kicking it down quickly. I stumbled out of the room, not caring that I was a bit covered in blood. My whole shirt turned from grey to red but that wasn't my priority now. I glanced around the floor, deciding to try the elevator at the end of the corridor.

"Valkyrie?" I whirled back to the elevator from nervously watching the door I just bust through.

I sighed in relief "Jack," I smiled, throwing myself into my friend's arms. He had taken to calling me Valkyrie because they were warriors in the Norse mythology and according to jack that fit me to a 't' "Where's the Doctor?" I asked when the elevator doors closed.

"We're going there now. Floor 56," the Captain pointed out, looking down at me pointedly "Shall I assumed you ate your way out?"

I tugged at my bloody shirt "Ah… Maybe? What was I supposed to do?"

"Hey, not judging," he grinned "Here we go. Come on." Jack pulled me along, looking at his wrist strap for reference "Hey, handsome," he called out "Good to see you. Any sign of Rose?"

The Doctor shook his head, not turning around to look at us "Can't you track her and Tyra down?"

"I wouldn't say he has to track me down," I pointed out, causing the Time Lord to whirl around.

"Tyra." He picked me up for a moment, crushing me to his chest "How did you get out?"

I shifted for a moment "Erm… Yeah… About that."

Jack snorted "She had a bit of a bite."

"Shut up," I hissed at him "But yeah. Basically."

The Doctor looked at me for a second before he turned back to the console "If I can just get inside this computer," he muttered "She's got to be here somewhere."

"Well," Jack sighed "You better hurry up. These games don't have a happy ending."

"Don't you think I know that?" the Time Lord snapped.

The Captain rolled his eyes and handed over his wrist computer "There you go, patch that in. It's programmed to find her."

"Thanks," the Doctor nodded.

I sat down by the window, looking out while Jack walked over to the girl who was next to me "Hey, there."

"Hello," she nodded.

Jack held out his hand "Captain Jack Harkness."

"Lynda Moss," she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you, Lynda Moss," Jack flirted.

The Doctor glanced up at them "Do you mind flirting outside?"

"I was only saying hello," the Captain shot back.

I raised an eyebrow "Oh, Jack. We both know that you're doing it on purpose."

"I'm not complaining," Lynda blushed.

I shot her a cheeky wink "They never do."

"It's not compatible," the Doctor muttered angrily "This stupid system doesn't make sense." He threw the computer to Lynda and kicked the console. Jack crouched down next to him, taking off the front plate "This place should be a basic broadcaster, but the systems are twice as complicated. It's more than just television. This station's transmitting something else."

I leaned around him "Like what?"

"I don't know," the Time Lord admitted "This whole Bad Wolf thing's tied up with me. Someone's manipulated my entire life. It's some sort of trap and Rose is stuck inside it." Suddenly, he perked up "Found her. Floor 407."

Lynda let out a gasp "Oh, my God. She's with the Anne Droid. You've got to get her out of there."

Not a minute later, we were all standing in the elevator again, going up to Floor 407. The Doctor was continuously pressing the button "Come on, come on."

On the right floor, we quickly found the right floor. The room wasn't too hard to find either since I could hear what was going on inside of them " _Shoes,_ " Rose said.

The Anne Droid's voice sounded next " _No, the correct answer is hats._ _Roderick, in physics, who discovered the Fifteen Dash Ten Barric Fields?_ "

The Doctor looked around hurriedly "Game Room Six, which one is it?"

"That one," I said, pointing to the right one.

" _San Hezeldine,_ " a man answered hurriedly.

" _No,_ " the robot denied " _The correct answer is_ _San Chen._ "

Jack pulled me away from the door "Stay back, let me blast it open."

"You can't," the Doctor shook his head "It's made of Hydra combination."

I rolled my eyes at them and quickly kicked the door down "A little less arguing maybe?"

The men gaped at me in surprise "How?" the Doctor blinked "This shouldn't be possible." He shook his head and ran into the room "Stop the game."

I ran in after him, seeing the guards that were coming toward us "Doctor, look out," I shouted, grabbing his arm to swing us around. Now I was between him and the guns and not a second too late. I grimaced when I felt something pierce my back and my heart. Blood leaked out of my mouth and I slumped into the Doctor's arms when my world turned black.

"Can you tell us the purpose of this device, sir?" a voice broken the world of black. I carefully moved my arms and my upper body before blinking my eyes open "Can you tell us how you got on board?"

"Just leave him alone," Lynda demanded. I caught Jack's eyes and nodded when he shook his head. I closed my eyes again and went limp.

The guard that was standing by the Doctor started up again "I'm asking him. Sir? Can you tell us who you are?" There was silence for a moment, only quiet orders "You will be taken from this place to the Lunar Penal Colony, there to be held without trial. You may not appeal against this sentence. Is that understood?"

"Tyra," the Doctor called out. I jumped up, knocking out the guard who had just unlocked the cell, while Jack knocked out the other one inside "Let's do it." The Captain grabbed his Defabricator while the Doctor took his sonic. Lynda, on the other hand, claims one of the weapons from the guard, throwing me the other one.

"What happened?" I asked, looking from the stoic face of the Doctor to Jack.

Jack lowered his voice "Rose lost the game…"

"… And was killed," I murmured, resting my hand on the Doctor's arm "I'm sorry."

On the top floor, Jack ordered the personnel to move away from the desk "Nobody try anything clever! Move to the side and stay there," Jack added, pointing his guns at them.

I tugged at my shirt which by now was sticking to my skin uncomfortably. The people still left here stumbled away from me, fear in their eyes "Ah," I smirked "I see you're monitoring the games…" When one of them actually whimpered "Calm down, will you? I don't bite. Not much anyway."

"Who's in charge of this place?" the Doctor demanded of an albino-like girl. She was strung up with wires running into her. Damn! Was that some weird torture or something?

"Nineteen, eighteen," she mumbled.

"The Satellite's more than a Game Station," the Doctor tried again.

"Seventy-nine, eighty," the girl continued as if she didn't hear him. Correction, she probably didn't.

The Doctor glared at her, getting angrier than he was "Who killed Rose Tyler?"

"All staff are reminded that solar flares occur in delta point one," she said.

"She can't reply," one of the personnel cut in. The Doctor swung his gun onto him "Don't shoot!" the man begged.

"Oh, don't be so thick. Like I was ever going to shoot," the Doctor rolled his eyes, throwing the man his weapon "Tyra, Captain, we've got more guard on the way up. Secure the exits," he ordered us.

"Yes, sir," Jack nodded and we went over to seal the doors. From our position the conversation was muffled, so we worked quickly.

"Door's sealed. We should be safe for about ten minutes," Jack reported, when we got back to the others.

"Keep and eye on them," the Time Lord called back. I noticed Jack watching his Vortex Manipulator and fiddling with it.

"What is it?" I asked, watching him from over my shoulder.

"There is something behind that door there," he replied, striding over.

When he was about to put his hand on the scanner a woman shouted "You're not allowed in there. Archive Six is out of bounds."

Jack held up the guns "Do I look like an out of bounds sort of guy?" he asked amused and turned to open the door.

Inside the room, we walk up to the Tardis "Yay," I clapped happily "I can change my shirt now. It was honestly getting a bit uncomfortable. I forgot how much of a bitch blood was to have on clothes."

"What the hell?" Jack burst out incredulously, gaping at something on the screen "That means that Rose is still alive," he cheered and turned to me. He scooped me up and kissed me straight on the lips.

When we separated, I cleared my throat "Maybe we should go and tell him then? Just… Give me a second. Can I have a new shirt?" The last sentence was said to the console. A hum echoed through the room and a shirt appeared on the Captain's chair "Thanks." Without caring about Jack watching me, I stripped out of the shirt I was wearing and into the new one.

"Damn, you look good out of your clothes," he complimented me.

I rolled my eyes "Not the time, Jack."

"Right," Jack nodded, running out of the door and back to where the others were "Found the Tardis."

"We're not leaving now," the Doctor said.

I shook my head "That's not what he's trying to say. The Tardis worked it all out. Jack?"

The Captain nodded "Lynda, could you stand over there for me please?"

"I just want to go home," the girl breathed.

"It'll only take a second," Jack assured her "Could you stand in that spot, quick as you can." After she did was he asked, I walked over to him, interested in what he would do "Everybody watching? Okay. Three, two, one." A beam came down and Lynda vanished as Colin did earlier.

The Doctor whipped his head to us "But you killed her."

"Oh, do you think?" Jack challenged.

Another button and another beam made Lynda appear back next to the Doctor "What the hell was that?" she breathed, steadying herself.

"It's a transmat beam," Jack explained "Not a disintegrator, a secondary transmat system. People don't get killed in the games. They get transported across space."

I walked forward to grasp the Doctor's arms "That means Rose is still alive."

"She's out there somewhere?" he asked, sounding hopeful.

The Controller who was still trapped in the wires called out "Doctor. Coordinates five point six point one…"

The Doctor shook his head "Don't… The solar flare is gone. They'll hear you."

"… Point four three four. No, my masters, no! I defy you," she cried "Stigma seven seven." The girl screamed, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"They took her," the Time Lord stated grimly, working on the central computer.

The man who whimpered earlier handed Jack something "Look, use that. It might contain the final numbers. I kept a log of all the unscheduled transmissions."

Jack nodded "Nice, Thanks. Captain Jack Harkness, by the way."

"I'm Davitch Pavale," he introduced himself, glancing at me nervously.

I rolled my eyes "For God's sake. I'm not going to kill anyone. Stop looking at me like that."

"Nice to meet you, Davitch Pavale," the Captain flirted, grinning at my annoyance.

"There's a time and a place," the Doctor sighed.

A woman frowned "Are you saying this entire set up's been a disguise all along?"

The Doctor nodded "Going way back. Installing the Jagrafess a hundred years ago. Someone's been playing a long game, controlling the human race from behind the scenes for generations."

Jack pointed at a button "Click on this. The transmat delivers to that point, right on the edge of the solar system."

"There's nothing there," the woman from before pointed out.

"It looks like nothing because that's what this satellite does," the Doctor murmured, deep in thought "Underneath the transmission there's another signal."

Pavale raised a shoulder in confusion "Doing what?"

"Hiding whatever is out there. Hiding it from sonar, radar, scanner. There's something sitting right on top of planet Earth, but it's completely invisible. If I cancel the signal…" He worked on the computer for a moment before a large flying saucer appears on a holo-viewscreen. It zoomed out to reveal a lot, lot more of them.

"That's impossible. I know those ships. They were destroyed," Jack gasped.

"Obviously, they survived," the Doctor snapped back, staring at the screen with an unreadable expression.

"Who did? Who are they?" Lynda asked confusedly.

"Two hundred ships. More than two thousand on board each one. That's just about half a million of them," the Time Lord explained, not having heard Lynda's question.

"Half a million what?" I asked in trepidation. The only time I had heard the Doctor talk like this was when…

"Daleks," he answered grimly. When we met the Daleks.

At that moment, a screen popped into view. Rose was surrounded by three Daleks looking frightened. I couldn't blame her. It is anything but sunshine and roses, being this close to Daleks "I will talk to the Doc-Tor," the Dalek in the middle demanded.

"Oh, will you? That's nice, hello!" the Doctor said, pulling up a mask of cheerfulness.

"The Dalek stratagem nears completion. The fleet is almost ready. You will not intervene."

The Time Lord raised an eyebrow "Oh really? Why is that then?"

"We have your associate. You will obey or she will be exterminated."

"No," the Doctor denied. No? To what exactly?

The Dalek on the screen blustered, well, as much as a Dalek could do that "Explain yourself."

"I said no," the Time Lord shrugged.

"What is the meaning of this negative?"

"It means no," the Doctor replied matter-of-factly.

"But she will be destroyed," the Dalek threatened.

"No! Because this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to save Rose Tyler from the middle of the Dalek fleet and then I'm going to save the Earth, and then, just to finish off, I'm going to wipe every last stinking Dalek out of the sky!"

I put my hand on his shoulder "Doctor, breathe," I whispered, so only he could hear it. He ignored me, his attention still focused on the Daleks.

"But you have no weapons, no defences, no plan," the Dalek said.

"Yeah. And doesn't that scare you to death? Rose?"

"Yes, Doctor?" Rose stuttered.

"I'm coming to get you," he replied, ending the transmission.


	13. Parting of the Ways

The Tardis was flying toward the Dalek ship as it released two missiles "We've got incoming," Jack shouted, seeing them on the monitor as he and the Doctor frantically worked on the controls. I was trying not to get in their way, holding the gun that Jack built earlier. The two missiles hit the Tardis, exploding in flames but leaving us unharmed "The extrapolator's working. We've got a fully functional force field." Jack blinked and smirked at me "Try saying that when you're drunk."

"I'll have to try that one on my brother," I snorted.

"And for my next trick," the Doctor started, working on the landing. The Tardis materialized around Rose and the nearest Dalek "Rose, get down. Get down, Rose." I aimed the Defabricator at the Dalek, ducking under its laser and shot it dead.

"You did it," Rose gasped, jumping into the Doctor's arms "Feels like I haven't seen you in years."

The Doctor pulled back "Told you I'd come and get you."

"Never doubted it," she grinned. I nodded at her when she caught my eye and put down the now useless gun.

"I did…" the Time Lord admitted "You alright?"

Rose nodded "Yeah. You?"

"Not bad," he shrugged "Been better."

Jack stepped up next to me, pouting at Rose "Hey, don't I get a hug?"

"Oh, come here," the blonde laughed.

"I was talking to him," the Captain teased, pulling Rose into his arms "Welcome home."

They separated a moment later and to my surprise, Rose actually pulled me into a quick hug "Oh, I thought I'd never see you guys again."

Jack looked at her seriously "Oh, you were lucky. That was just a one-shot wonder. Drained the gun of all its power supply. Now it's just a piece of junk."

The Doctor pulled out his sonic, examining the dead Dalek quickly. We joined him and I couldn't stop myself from poking the slimy looking mutant stuff. Rose turned to face the Doctor "You said they were extinct. How come they're still alive?"

"One minute they're the greatest threat in the Universe, the next minute they vanish out of time and space," Jack shrugged.

"They went to fight a bigger war," the Doctor told him quietly "The Time War."

Jack's head snapped up "I though that was just a legend."

"I was there," the Time Lord murmured "The was between the Daleks and the Time Lords with the whole of creation at stake. My people were destroyed but they took the Daleks with them." He closed his eyes "I almost thought it was worth it. Now it turns out they died for nothing."

"There are thousands of them now," Rose pointed out "We could hardly stop one. What are we gonna do?"

"No good stood round here chin-wagging," the Doctor said with fake cheer, getting up "Human Race, you'd gossip all day. The Daleks have got the answers, let's go and meet the neighbours."

I snorted "Yeah, let's go and meet the crazy pepper-pot death machines."

"You can't go out there," Rose agreed but it was already too late.

"Exterminate," the Daleks shouted "Exterminate! Exterminate." They fired their bolts at the Doctor. Surprisingly, the extrapolator was still holding up, so they got dissolved. Jack, Rose and I popped our heads out and carefully stepped up to the Doctor.

The Time Lord leaned back smugly "Is that it? Useless. Null points," he mocked "You can relax. That force field can hold back anything."

"Alm…" Jack started but I quickly leaped onto his back, slapping my hand over his mouth.

The Doctor raised his eyebrow at me in amusement "Thank you, Ty."

I nodded my head and pulled back my hand in revulsion "Gross. Did you just lick my hand?"

"No?" Jack shot me an innocent expression that didn't fit him at all.

"Shush," the Doctor waved his hand at us. He was staring at the silent Daleks in front of him. All their eyestalks focused on the Time Lord "Do you know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek Homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might have removed all your emotions… but I reckon that right down, deep in your DNA, there's one little spark left. And that's fear." The Daleks' eyestalks shifted around "Doesn't it just burn when you face me? So, tell me, how did you survive the Time War?"

A booming voice echoed through the ship "They survived through me." The lights came on to reveal a large apparatus which turned out to be an exploded giant Dalek casing. Inside, there was a blue-skinned one-eyed mutant that was observing everything proudly.

The Doctor's eyes widened "Rose, Ty, Captain… this is the Emperor of the Daleks."

"You destroyed us, Doctor. The Dalek Race died in your inferno but my ship survived, falling through time, crippled but alive," the Emperor cried out.

"I get it," the Doctor interrupted.

"Do not interrupt," a Dalek yelled, quickly followed by two others.

Jack and Rose recoiled but I just watched them curiously. I wasn't sure whether I would die if they hit me with one of there beams but I doubted it. Mother had been very specific when she said that only the wood of one tree could kill us… Not even every tree of that species but just the one… The one that we burned down as soon as we could "I think you're forgetting something," the Doctor smirked, trying to keep the attention on him at all times "I'm the Doctor. And if there's one thing I can do, it's talk. I've got five billion languages and you haven't got one way of stopping me. So, if anybody's gonna shut up, it's you." He spat the last word so harshly that the Daleks actually rolled back a bit. He grinned victoriously and turned back to the Emperor "Okay, then. So, where were we?"

The Emperor looked down at us "We waited here in the dark space, damaged but rebuilding. Centuries passed and we quietly infiltrated the systems of Earth, harvesting the waste of humanity. The prisoners, the refugees, the dispossessed. They all came to us. The bodies were filtered, pulped, sifted. The seed of the human race is perverted. Only one cell in a billion was fit to be nurtured."

"So you created an army of Daleks out of the dead?" the Doctor tilted his head.

I stepped forward "Scratch that. Doesn't that make them half human?"

"Those words are blasphemy," the Emperor roared.

The Dalek closest to us whirred around "Do not blaspheme." It was once again chorused by others but this time all of the Daleks from the stands joined in.

"Okay?" I muttered, wiggling my finger in my ear "You didn't have to shout."

The Emperor still sounded angry when he spoke up again "Everything human has been purged. I cultivated pure and blessed Dalek."

"Since when did the Daleks have a concept of blasphemy?" the Time Lord questioned, sounding completely baffled. He had put a hand on my shoulder to pull me back when the Daleks' words registered.

"I reached into the dirt and made new life," the Emperor explained "I am the God of all Daleks."

"Worship him. Worship him. Worship him."

The Doctor turned to us, his eyes a bit wild "They're insane… Hiding in silence for hundreds of years, that's enough to drive anyone mad. But it's worse than that. Driven mad by your own flesh. The stink of humanity. You hate your own existence and that makes them more deadly than ever. We're going."

"You may not leave my presence," the Emperor ordered. But we had already turned and walked back into the Tardis, the Daleks powerless to stop us.

When another Dalek shouted at us to stop, the Doctor just grinned mockingly before shutting the doors behind him. The Time Lord leaned his head against the inside of the doors, listening to the battle cries of the Daleks echoing in his ears. I walked forward, gently placing my hand on his shoulder "Come on, Doctor. Let's go back to the others." He nodded silently and went to steer the Tardis back to Floor 500.

"Turn everything up," the Doctor called, marching out of the Tardis "All transmitters full power, wide open. Now! Do it!"

Pavale frowned "What does it do?"

"Stops the Daleks from transmatting on board. How did you get on? Did you contact Earth?" the Doctor questioned.

The programmer shrugged his shoulders "Well, we tried to warn them but all they did was suspend out license because we stopped the programs."

"And the planet's just sitting there, defenseless," he remarked before noticing Lynda next to him "Lynda, what are you still doing on board?" The Doctor rounded on Pavale "I told you to evacuate everyone."

"She wouldn't go," he defended himself.

Lynda smiled shyly "Didn't want to leave you." Rose looked her up and down carefully and I was sure she didn't like the implication too much.

The female programmer stepped forward "There weren't enough shuttles anyway or I wouldn't be here," she added "We've got about a hundred people stranded on Floor Zero."

"Oh, my God," Pavale gasped "The Fleet is moving. They're on their way."

The Doctor ran to the conduits, pulling out all sort of cables "Dalek plan. Big mistake because what have they left me with? Anyone? Anyone? Oh, come on, it's obvious. A great big transmitter. This station. If I can change the signal, fold it back, sequence it, anyone?"

"You've got to be kidding," Jack gaped in disbelieve.

"Give the man a medal," the Doctor nodded.

Jack shook his head "A Delta Wave?"

"What's a Delta Wave?" Rose frowned.

"A wave of Van Cassadyne energy," Jack explained to both of us "Fries your brain, stand in the way of a Delta Wave and your head gets barbecued."

The Doctor grinned "And this place can transmit a massive wave. Wipe out the Daleks."

"Well, get started and do it then," Lynda pointed out.

I tilted my head "I have a question. I might not understand what a Delta Wave is completely but… Do you even have the time to do it?"

"Wave this size, building this big, brain as clever as mine, should take about…" he contemplated it for a moment "Oh… About three days. How long till the Fleet arrives?"

Pavale turned to the monitor and sagged "Twenty-two minutes."

A while later, Jack had programmed the extrapolator to shield the Gamestation. He had bossed me around a bit to get things done quicker and it worked "We've now got a forcefield so they can't blast us out of the sky but it doesn't stop the Daleks from physically invading."

"Do they know about the Delta Wave?"

Jack nodded "They'll have worked it out at the same time. So, they want to stop the Doctor. That means they've got to get to this level, five hundred. Now, I can concentrate the extrapolator around the top six levels, five hundred to four nine five. So they'll penetrate the station below that at level four nine four and fight their way up."

"Who are they fighting?" Pavale questioned.

"Us."

The male programmer snorted "And what are we fighting with?"

"The guards had guns with bastic bullets," Jack pointed out "That's enough to blow a Dalek wide open."

The woman raised her eyebrows "There's six of us."

"Rose, Ty, you can help me. I need all these wires stripping bare," the Doctor called without looking up.

"Right, now there's four of us," the woman corrected.

Jack rolled his eyes at her "Then let's move it. Into the lift. Isolate the controls."

Pavale and her colleague ran off, while Lynda stayed back for a moment longer "I just want to say, er, thanks, I suppose and I'll do my best."

"Me too," the Doctor smiled, shaking the girl's hand.

Now it was only the four of us left and Jack sighed "It's been gun but I guess this is goodbye."

"Don't talk like that," Rose chided "The Doctor's going to do it. You just watch him."

Jack smiled at her naivety "Wish I'd never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward." He cupped the Doctor's face and pressed a kiss to the Time Lord's lips "Tyra… I'm going to miss you, my little Valkyrie." He leaned down and kissed me as well.

I froze for a moment before I slugged him in the stomach to make him let go of me "Sorry, Jackie. You're not really my type, you know? Bit too young."

The Captain just laughed and turned to Rose "Rose, you are worth fighting for." When he kissed her though, Rose grabbed his coat, deepening the kiss a little. Not much, mind you but it took a while for them to come up for air again "See you in hell," Jack grinned as he ran off.

Rose sniffled a bit "He's going to be alright, isn't he?"

We were silent for a while, just working quietly with the occasional command from the Doctor. Suddenly, Rose spoke up "Suppose."

When she didn't continue, the Doctor looked up "What?"

"Nothing," the blonde shook her head.

"You said suppose," the Time Lord pointed out.

She shook her head "No, I was just thinking. I mean, obviously you can't, but, you've got a time machine. Why can't you just go back to last week and warn them?"

"As soon as the Tardis lands in that second, I become part of events," the Doctor explained sadly "Stuck in the timeline."

"Yeah, thought it'd be something like that," Rose murmured.

The Doctor glanced at me and back to Rose "There's another thing the Tardis could do. It could take us away. We could leave. Let history take its course. We go to Marbella in 1989."

"Or Barcelona, right?" I smiled lightly "You'd never leave and you know it."

"No, but you could ask," the Doctor sighed "Never even occurred to you two, did it?"

Rose grinned "Well, I'm just too good."

"The Delta Wave is started building," the Doctor remarked "How long does it need?" The two of them ran over to a console.

"Is that bad?" the blonde blinked. The Doctor looked at her silently "Okay, it's bad. How bad is it?"

The Time Lord straightened up with a gasp "Rose Tyler, you're a genius! We can do it. If I use the Tardis to cross my old timeline. Yes!" He ran into the Tardis, past me. I shook my head when Rose actually followed him in. There was no way that we could do what the Doctor just said… "Hold that down and keep position."

"What's it do?" Rose questioned.

The Doctor threw up several levers "Cancels the buffers. If I'm very clever and I'm more than clever, I'm brilliant, I might just save the world. Or rip it apart…" he trailed off.

"I'd go for the first one," the blonde laughed.

"Me too," the Time Lord agreed "Now, I've just got to go and power up the Game Station and get Ty. Hold on!" He ran out and stopped in the midst of his mess of cables. He looked back at the Tardis then points the sonic screwdriver at it. The engines started at the same time as he caught my eye. I smiled lightly and continued with my task.

"Doctor, what're you doing?" Rose shouted through the door "Can I take my hand off? It's moving." She banged at the door "Doctor, let me out! Let me out! Doctor, what have you done?" It was the last thing we heard before the Tardis dematerialised.

"You did the right thing," I told him before glancing down at my hands "Now, what do I have to do?"

Before the Doctor could reply, Jack's voice came over the comm "Rose, I've called up the internal laser codes. There should be different numbers on every screen, can you read them out to me?"

"She's not here," the Doctor said.

"Of all the time to take a leak," Jack grumbled.

I snorted "He took her home actually."

"But not you," Jack pointed out.

"I wouldn't have left and you know it," I told him.

Jack nodded and turned his head to look at he Doctor "The Delta Wave… is it ever gonna be ready?"

"Tell him the truth, Doctor," the booming voice of the Emperor sounded. We looked up to see the 'God of all Daleks' projected onto the largest monitor "There is every possibility that the Delta Wave could be complete but no possibility of refining it. The Delta Wave must kill every living thing in its path with no distinction between human and Dalek. All things will die. By your hand."

"Doctor… the range of this transmitter covers the entire Earth," Jack pointed out.

The Emperor moved about "You would destroy Daleks and humans together. If I am God, the creator of all things, then what does that make you, Doctor?"

"There are colonies out there," the Doctor countered, getting up "The Human Rave would survive in some shape or form but you're the only Daleks in existence. The whole Universe is in danger if I let you live." He looked over at Jack on the other screen "Do you see, Jack? Tyra? That's the decision I've got to make for every living thing." The Doctor grabbed my hand "Die as human or live as Dalek. What would you do?"

Jack looked at us for a moment "Keep working."

"But they will exterminate you," the Emperor yelled.

The Captain smirked "Never doubted him, never will."

The Doctor grinned when I voiced my opinion as well. I wouldn't have gone with him if I had any doubts in his choices "Now, you tell me, God of all Daleks, because there's one thing I never worked out. The words Bad Wolf, spread across time and space, everywhere, drawing me in. How did you manage that?"

"I did nothing."

"Oh, come on," the Doctor scoffed "There are no secrets now, your worship."

The Emperor shook its 'head' "They are not part of my design. This is the Truth of God." The Doctor and I looked up at the BadWolf Corporation sign on the wall. It's been everywhere we went… Ever since the first adventure.

"Do you really trust me that much?" the Doctor asked me after we were alone again.

I smiled "Even if I die here… I don't really mind. I have lived a long life, Doctor. A thousand years… I trust you to do the right thing."

" _How long till the Fleet arrives?_ " Jack called through the comms.

Pavale shifted " _They've accelerated._ "

" _This is it, ladies and gentlemen. We are at war,_ " Jack said as rows and rows of Dalek ship approached.

Everything turned quiet for a while… We all just anticipated the Daleks' arrival. The Doctor was still fiddling with the cables, connecting them as fast as he could " _You were right,_ " Lynda breathed " _They're forcing the airlock on four nine four._ " The whole satellite shook, announcing the arrival of the pepper-pots.

" _Okay, activate internal lasers. Slice them up,_ " Jack called.

Lynda hummed " _Defences have gone offline. The Dalek's have overridden the lot. Advance guard have made it to four nine five._ "

"Jack, how are we doing?" the Doctor asked.

"Four nine five should be good," the Captain remarked "I like four nine five."

" _They're flying up the ventilation shafts. No, wait a minute,_ " Lynda paused for a moment " _Oh, my God. Why are they doing that? They're going down._ " I heard the sound of the people downstairs dying until Lynda shut it off " _Floor Zero… They killed them all._ "

The Doctor paused in his work to show me how to connect the things I was holding in my hand… Maybe I really should read up on that stuff some more "Lynda," the Time Lord called over his shoulder "What's happening on Earth?"

" _The Fleet's descending,_ " the girl replied quietly " _They're bombing whole continents. Europa… Pacifica… the New American Alliance… Australasia's just… gone._ " It didn't take long until we heard the sound of firing directly below us " _I have a problem,_ " Lynda's voice came over the comm " _They've found me._ "

"You'll be fine," the Doctor reassured her "That side of the station's reinforced against meteors."

She laughed tearfully " _I hope so. You know what they say about Earth workmanship…"_ The noise of sparks sounded as if someone was trying to cut though metal " _They're surrounding me._ " There was the sound of glass smashing… Lynda screamed and then it was silence except for the gunshots below us.

"They killed her." The Doctor closed his eyes, his voice sounding slightly chocked.

I walked over to him, wrapping my arms around his shoulders "They did… I'm sorry."

" _Last man standing,_ " Jack yelled over the comm " _For God's sake, Doctor, finish that thing and kill them._ "

"Finish that thing and kill mankind," the Emperor added. We looked over to see the Emperor watching us from the big screen again.

" _You've got twenty seconds maximum,"_ Jack told us as the sound of bullets faded. A gun clattered on the floor.

" _Exterminate_ ," the Daleks cried.

" _I kinda figured that,_ " Jack muttered, bracing himself.

The Doctor pulled up a lever on the device he put together "It's ready." Daleks entered and surrounded us from all sides "You really want to think about this because if I activate the signal, every living creature dies."

"I am immortal," the Emperor cried on the screen.

I scoffed "Yeah, so am I but I doubt that's gonna do me any good."

"Do you want to put that to the test?" the Doctor challenged, throwing me a look that said to keep quiet.

The Emperor drew himself up. Though how he managed any of that was beyond me… He was a freaking mutant thing in a tube "I want to see you become like me. Hail the Doctor, the Great Exterminator."

"I'll do it," the Doctor warned, his voice shaking.

"Then prove yourself, Doctor. What are you, coward or killer?"

The Time Lord tightened his grip on the lever but pulled back at the last second "Coward. Any day." He turned to me "I'm so sorry."

"I told you before," I murmured "It's your choice."

The Emperor would have smirked if he had a mouth "Mankind will be harvested because of your weakness and you will die."

Once of the Daleks in front of the Doctor raised its laser arm and fired. I quickly pulled in front of the Doctor only to take the beam in the chest "Ty," the Doctor called before everything went black.

I groaned when the blackness slowly faded "Damn, that hurt," I cursed, sitting up. I took in my surroundings and blinked when I saw that I was back on the Tardis "What happened?"

"You died for me, Tyra," the Doctor pointed out, leaning against the console heavily. He looked like he was in pain.

"Are you alright?"

He smiled "I'm fine. Well, I will be. Oh, Rose is waking up."

Rose? I frowned as I spotted the other girl. When in the world did she come back? "What happened?" the blonde questioned, sitting up.

"Don't you remember?" the Doctor questioned curiously.

Rose shook her head "It's like there was singing…"

"That's right," the Time Lord snorted "I sang a song and the Daleks ran away."

"I was at home," the blonde continued "No, I wasn't. I was in the Tardis and there was this light. I can't remember anything else."

From my point near the console, I could see the Doctor's skin shimmering slightly "Rose Tyler… Tyra Mikaelson… I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona," he winked at me at the mention "Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You'd love it. Fantastic place. They've got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke and it's still funny."

"Then why can't we go?" Rose demanded.

"Maybe you will and maybe I will. But not like this." I inhaled sharply. Oh… I got it now. That's why he said that he would be alright… Something happened and it must be killing the Doctor. Quite literally, actually.

Rose frowned "You're not making sense."

"I might never make sense again. I might have two heads, or no head. Imagine me with no head. And don't say that's an improvement. But it's a bit dodgy, this process. You never know what you're going to end up with…" The Time Lord double over in pain. He stumbled back when Rose got closer "Stay back."

The blonde looked at him tearfully "Doctor, tell me what's going on."

"I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex, and no one's meant to do that. Every cell in my body's dying," he explained.

"Can't you do something?" Rose questioned, staring at him intently.

The Doctor nodded "Yeah, I'm doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it's sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I'm going to change, and I'm not going to see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old face. And before I go…"

"Don't say that," the blonde cut in.

"Rose," the Doctor warned "Before I go, I just want to tell you two that you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I." Golden light burst out of the Doctor's body. I shielded my eyes but tried to keep watching at the same time. It didn't take long until the Doctor started changing. When the glow died down, he was completely different. His hair was longer, he was thinner and the thing that annoyed me the most was that he was probably another one or two inches taller than he was before. Suck for small people… "Hello," the new Doctor grinned before he frowned "Okay. Ooh, new teeth. That's weird. So, where was I? Oh, that's right. Barcelona."


End file.
